Sealion Blues
by Lunar
Summary: A little pre-game story about Zack and Sephiroth. War, politics, and corruption make for some odd friends, and a damn good time. If you're a timeline stickler, consider this AU.
1. Default Chapter

***SeaLion**** Blues* (part 1)**

_A little AU, FF7 fic for Zack, because he deserves one._

Opening Notes:

-I am taking extreme liberties with the time line, so there.  :-P

//…// for thoughts. Standard disclaimers apply.

*********************

"There's been a bit of an incident at Kobani Bay…"

"Kobani?"

"A little nothing inlet down on the south coast of Wutai… It was under lease from the Wutai government by our benevolent corporation… seems there's been… a bit of fuss raised. The natives of the region inexplicably became incensed about something and…"

Sephiroth gave up looking at the gloomy Midgar skyline in order to pay more attention to the barrel shaped man with a beard. Outside, the sun made a valiant attempt to pierce the dull haze perpetually blanketing the city but within, everything was plush leather and chrome décor. Heidigger's office was mammoth, everything composed of tall imposing lines except the man himself. Of all the things in the room, its owner was singularly out of place. 

// … Compensating for something, I wonder. //

"… and…?"  His chair was too soft and felt rather like it was going to swallow him in its leather embrace. Its useless spongy padding reminded him of his conversation partner. 

"Well somehow they managed to sink two of our commercial carriers."

"What of the escort cruiser… Aren't they customary for such outposts?" 

Heidigger chuckled nervously. "Reports are as yet… unconfirmed… but the escort has also gone missing."

The white-haired man uncrossed his legs, surrendering his lounging attitude to sit upright and stare at his superior with disbelief. "You mean to tell me, that two cargo ships and navy destroyer have been either sunk or captured… and you consider this… 'a bit of an incident' ?"

Bobbing back and forth much like a cork in water, the shaggy general blustered and was unable to meet his visitor's eye. "… Well we still need final reports before we know… what sort of damage…"

The paler general's smile was all wintry amusement. "Three ships missing and you don't. have a clue. Congratulations Heidigger, the President will have your balls nailed to the door for certain, this time."

"Not if the situation gets taken care of quickly…" The barrel-chested man looked decidedly gray. "I mean to take immediate action. A firm stance! Swift justice for our fallen soldiers and miners…"  He grimaced at the lack of faith demonstrated by his audience. Sephiroth had slouched back in his overstuffed chair once more, deliberately propping his boots up on the edge of the chrome and glass desk. "Hey! That's brand new!"

"… I noticed."  The smile only got colder. 

// Now Heidigger… the question is… why are you telling _me about your sordid little fuck-up… What possible… //_

"Anyway… So. Right. Immediate Action…" The bearded man scooped up some files littered on his desk and jammed them into a large envelope. He thrust it at the seated soldier, handling it like a live grenade with the pin missing. "General, your orders are to restore order to the outpost and determine the cause of this debacle. Shinra _must_ have its ore supplies! This company, no, this City depends on you."

// Typical. Never send a moron to do a man's job. // The younger officer wordlessly accepted the papers. 

"You are certain you wouldn't rather go yourself then?" He allowed a little more contempt than usual to seep into his quiet question.

"… Unfortunately I have dut-"

"Spare me the grandstanding, _general. I'll clean up your little mess for you." Playing politics was tedious at best, listening to speeches was something he was only willing to suffer through on the company's time, not his own. "It shouldn't take long."_

// Now _that_ is interesting… // 

Sephiroth's eyes narrowed imperceptibly, taking in the older man's failed attempt to smother a snort of amusement. // Just what have you dumped in my lap, old codger… // 

He was used to being tested, challenged, doubted. Less than five years ago he had entered the Shinra military program, skipping directly to a command post and then pulling himself to the top by a calculated mixture of ego, cunning and undeniable skill. General Sephiroth wasn't liked, but he was _acknowledged_. Neither kind, nor amiable, nor entertaining, he persevered to be untouchable. He would be _great_, whatever the cost. 

Deciding his predecessor had wilted enough under his cutting gaze; he tucked his briefing under his arm and turned to go. Reaching the door he paused well aware of how it would make the man cringe. "By the way Heidigger… prod so much as _one_ of you sausage-link fingers into the SOLDIER program while I'm gone… and I _will_ hear about it… You're not exactly… irreplaceable anymore, are you." His white hair moved in a wave as he turned to look back.

"... yeah, well… if you screw up on this mission, _Sephiroth… I'll have you decommissioned! And… Court martialed!"_

"… Court marshal… me…? Now_ general… You really wouldn't want to do that. They're _televised _after all… You never know, I might just _slip_ under the pressure…" _

He smiled again, the expression almost bloodthirsty. "Tell me, Heidigger… that new desk of yours… can still only fit one whore under it? Or is it big enough for _two_ now."

"You… How dare y-"  

The bearded man growled uselessly as his reply was met with the firm 'click' of the door shutting.  Fuming, he settled behind his desk and smirked at the pages that were still on the blotter. 

"… Let's see how the marvelous _boy wonder fares without these…" His rumbling chuckle turned into a full-chest laugh._

 The folder, marked 'Confidential, Medical, Profile: Lieutenant Colonel Clark' was slipped discretely into a drawer.

"Mavis!" Heidigger thumbed his intercom with a practiced jab.

"Yes general?"

"… Call the restaurant and tell them to move me up an hour… I feel like celebrating…"

"Yes general."

"And then call that tart, Scarlet… and tell her I have some interesting news for her…"

"Yes general." The woman's prim voice always grated him the wrong way but for once he let it go. He was in a good mood.

"White-washed freak… I hope that jungle scum blows your head off…"

*****

The remains of the squad flattened itself in the thick foliage as machinegun fire did its best to mow down anything capable of bleeding, and much that wasn't. Someone screamed in pain and there was frantic rustling as the wounded man was pulled to a safer position. Zack swore heartily at he risked a glance over the rotting log he was using as a blind. There was nothing to see. Their attackers might have well been the trees themselves. Catching the eye of the two men nearest to him, he dispatched cautious scouts to try and flank his invisible opponents. He didn't expect much, but it was better than just sitting on his hands. A small insect was happily chomping on the one portion of his neck not liberally coated with mud and jungle muck. He crushed it with a slap and carefully crawled back to where his commanding officer lay bleeding.

"With all do respect sir… we're fucked."

"Ah… that's the indefatigable Specialists' spirit, hmmm lieutenant?"

"No Major, that's plain common sense. The men are shooting blind, and without our Materia, Hollis and I just don't have any long-range attacks that will get the job done. We need to fall back."

"But they're just rabble. There can't be that many…?" Tired, injured and frustrated, the career officer tried to sit up only to have one of his guards force him back onto his stretcher. "… This is pathetic."

"This is _their_ forest, sir. They have a considerable advantage."

"If only we had _Materia_… well, I guess that's _one_ good thing… isn't it? We don't have any… but they don't have any either?"

Zack smiled grimly and craned his head to see how his scouts were fairing. He winced as one of the two men was spooked by a sudden burst of gunfire, and jumped into an exposed position.

// Shit, Wally! //

It was of course, exactly what the snipers had been waiting for. The Specialists watched dispassionately as another barrage of fire caught the man square if the torso, making hash of his head and chest. He squinted up into the trees, his familiarity with the bush allowing him to guess more then the rest of the rank and file. Instead of focusing on the spray of blood that had been a promising junior officer, he tracked the frantic rustling of the broken leaves. The bullets had to be coming from somewhere. It wasn't ghosts who had just wiped out half of his squad.

// Damn that raving-lunatic and his paranoia…. Damn him, and his mental instabilities… I should have killed him when I had the chance… When we get back to camp… _If we get back to camp… and if the major doesn't take steps… I will. // _

Slipping through the prone forms of the waiting soldiers, he appropriated a gun and checked that the clip still had bullets enough to get the job done. Rather than crawling to completely hide himself, he moved in a steady crouch, deliberately teasing, _testing_ his assailants. They did not disappoint. The occasional shot only assisted him in placing a second potential target out in the green. It was dangerous. There was no question his hasty and exposed movements were risky in the extreme, but he wasn't really in the mood to care. He was specialist, he had a reputation of being 'a little crazier than usual' to maintain.

// Besides, this mission was suicide from the start. // 

Zack closed his eyes a moment as he leaned against the safe shelter of one of the twisted trees. It took only a moment, a calming breath, and then he was _moving_. He didn't need to see the enemy to know they were there. They were proud, confident. The snipers probably didn't even think to hide themselves with more than the camouflage they wore. Moving too fast to truly register what he was shooting at, the dark-haired man was only conscious of the feel of his body's headlong flight. He knew his aim was correct, and his speed sufficient, but in his minds eye all he was aware of was a distant paper silhouette being punched through in time to the powerful kick of the gun in his hand. Every shot tore the hole wider. Idly he wondered when the first lucky bullet would find him.

// … gotcha… bastards. Hold still so I can find you… // 

First one scream, and then another, and he was still moving, scanning, dodging. There was another target, revealed in a burst of fire. The man was sloppy, angry at his success. He felt a distant sting, knew his arm was bleeding. It was only surface damage. The gun came up again shuddering against his palms as third sniper collapsed. Another flash of gunpowder caught his eye, up and to the left, closer than he cared to admit. This time however, he had backup. Strong hands caught him by the shoulder to redirect his momentum with a quick jerk. He hit the tree hard and cast Hollis a grateful look. The sandy-blond wasn't paying attention, already strafing the treetops where their assailant had been.

"We're sitting ducks."

"You've got that right. We're going back."

"They'll pick us off from behind."

"Better than picking us off as we sit here with our thumbs up our butts."

"… In that case _sir_, I'll just take rear-guard, shall I?"

Zack grinned wolfishly. "Don't die. You still owe me two hundred gil."

"Yeah and you owe me a case of beer, so what." 

"I'll get the others moving." The dark-haired soldier patted his friend and started silently directing the survivors. When the group finally was organized enough to move, their head count was disturbingly low. Carrying their injured any way they could, they marched quickly back through the green maze. The jungle was quiet.

The darker soldier had managed to scavenge a second working weapon, hanging it over his shoulder for safekeeping. The barrel of the gun tapped gently against its twin as he thought mournfully of his sword carefully stashed back in camp. The massive blade would have come in handy - as a shield if nothing else - but was too damn heavy to carry on hikes like this. He winced with every metallic tap, aware of how much noise they were all making. 

Seeing that the pathway ahead was opening up into a slightly clearer area, he jogged a little ahead, hoping to flush out anything truly exciting before the bulk of the exhausted squad walked into a trap. Instinct had been correct in timing if not in location. With a whistled burst he felt a wave of heat and light erupt behind him, picking him up like a blown leaf and throwing him forward.

// … Fire2?  _Shit… // _

Scrambling to his feet and coughing against the smoke, he swore at the extent of the damage. // No… no that had to be level 3…// 

The few trees at ground zero had been all but incinerated. Ones a little further out were blackened poles, stripped of all branches and vegetation.

// This is insane! // 

Only in Wutai would a rebel peasant be able to get their hands on something as ludicrous as a mastered fire Materia. Using the smoke as his ally, he turned back to see if there was anyone, or anything to salvage.

// Come on Holly-boy… Poker-night just won't be the same without you. //

The man had been towards the back, and possibly thrown further back. It was a slim hope but better than contemplating finding his fellow specialist well-cooked. 

"…help…me…?"

Zack blinked in surprise and rolled a corpse over to discover the charred but still living body of the squad's ranking officer. Major Mallory was visibly shaking although whether it was from fear or shock was impossible to tell. "I can't believe you survived that." 

"Did anyone else…?"

"Doesn't look like it."

"We have to get back to camp… warn them… The colonel will listen… he must… no one is crazy enough to think that we can face this without defenses of our own… we need those Materia…"

The dark haired soldier didn't waste the energy to agree or disagree with the dazed man. His orders had been to assist the squad in surveillance and then return with them to base. The fact that his squad had now been reduced to a team of himself and a seriously commander didn't change anything. He rolled the other bodies away with his foot to inspect the older man's injuries. The major wasn't in good shape, but he wasn't done for by any stretch.

"Right. Let's go, major."

Wincing in pain, the man allowed himself to tossed over a shoulder in an almost caviler fashion. He was heavy, but not heavy enough to slow Zack down. "This is… really irregular."

"Just keep a look-out behind us for sharpshooters. I'm going to see if we can't just out maneuver them."

"I really don't see ho-oooowoah!" The sooty fingers clenched painfully in the soldier's hair as he broke into a trot, and then increased his speed until he was at the fastest lope he could risk.  The trail was more defined here, a common path between the mine and the nearest fishing village, but there was still a variety of exposed roots, potholes, and small rocks that he could trip over. A sprained ankle wasn't on his agenda for the afternoon.

// Especially when it would likely be followed promptly by two shots to the head. Stubborn bastards. //

He grinned briefly and tried to shift his wiggling burden higher onto his shoulder. The locals had ample reason to be pissed, _more than pissed, as far as he could tell, and he had only been stationed at the camp for six months. There was no telling what sort of insanity had occurred before his arrival. The damage control that his small team of combat specialists had been able to do was simply not enough to appease the angry Wutai clans nearby.  _

The camp's second in command had been a brief voice of reason. Major Paulo, iron-haired but by no means retired, had gone so far as to meet with the furious chiefs and might have even established a truce. Not that any of them had been able to find out the result of that meeting. The colonel has shot him in the chest shortly after he had returned to camp.

// … Mutiny…? Like hell. He was trying to _save the situation… and Fred gone… and the major here is in pieces… shit! //_

The thought almost made him stop dead. With his original team leader dead, and the chain of command as shattered at it was, it struck him that not only was he the acting-commander of his three remaining fellow specialists but probably the ranking officer in the camp as well. Zack spared a small prayer that somewhere Hollis was laying low and waiting his chance. Assuming leadership by dint of fatality didn't amuse him much, but loosing direct subordinates through carelessness amused him even less.

// There was nothing I could do… and ten normal troopers to baby-sit… someone had to take point, and someone had to take rear… that's how it works… //

He didn't _think_ he had done anything worthy of court martial yet. That would change of course, provided he survived long enough to get back to camp. Another biting insect tried to make lunch out of him. The dark-haired soldier brought up his free hand to absentmindedly crush it against his shoulder armor.

"… Just like back home…"

"…What was that, lieutenant?"

"If it weren't for the shooting… this place would remind me of Gongaga…" He chuckled between breaths. There was a clearing up ahead and he quickened his pace appropriately. It wasn't far now. They were going to make it.

***** 

Even to a jaundiced eye, the view from the edge of the plate was amazing.  Sephiroth leaned against the railing on the observation deck of the airfield in Sector 3 and stared west towards the distant ocean.  When the wind blew strong it carried some of the smog away from the elevated city, allowing it to feel almost like it was floating among the clouds rather than standing on stilts amidst a cloud of its own flatulence. Like many before him, the general's first distant impression of the industrial city had been of gleaming steel towers rising into the night sky. After years living in it, he rarely found anything appealing about the place at all. 

Today was an exception.  Steady gusts swept across the tarmac, causing the deck hands to crouch as they walked for fear of being blown over. Their cautious crawling reminded him of little orange crabs making their way over a black sandy beach. Some of the beaches in Wutai were rumored to be black, a leftover geologic curiosity from the island chain's volcanic past.  The array of helicopters priming their engines probably didn't help the unsettled breezes, their massive rotors slowly swinging to life, beating the air in heavy harmony. He inhaled quietly, enjoying the fresh scent as his men quietly set about loading cargo into the heavy troop transports. They were easily claiming the bulk of Midgar's air power, but it was easier to acquire resources locally then risk one of Heddiger's minions playing politics with his equipment at the Junon outpost.  The former fishing town was in the midst of a building boom, but the airbase was still partly finished at best. Sephiroth much preferred avoiding it all together if he could help it. They would cut east instead, stopping in Mideel and then pushing on over the ocean to reach their final destination. A supply ship would meet them in time to refuel for the long trip home, whenever that was.  As many doubts as there were about the veracity of his mission briefing, he couldn't help but feel a little cheerful about the whole thing. It was a beautiful morning, and his men could use the exercise.

// … And hell… it gets me out of this rat-trap of a city for a few weeks… Dealing with a jungle full of bitter militants seems a small price to pay for some fresh air and relative quiet. //

As a boy he had dreamed great dreams, soldier, general, maybe even president.  Strangely, the more items he checked off his theoretical wish list, the less desirable he found the whole process.  Currently he'd be willing to trade the presidency for a pair of decent earplugs and two additional hours of sleep. It was one of life's many mysteries.

"General, sir?"  A solid man saluted stiffly, waiting for him to turn and acknowledge. He did, repressing a sigh of annoyance that the captain didn't deserve. 

"Yes Mr. Jain?" 

"We're loaded and ready sir."  The SOLDIER nodded towards the line of waiting men and to the Gelinka choppers spinning their blades behind them. 

"… in that case, we'd better go."  If his stiff necked officer noticed his unusually bland reply, he didn't show it. Captain Jain was a professional sort of man, as dependable as a stone while on duty and about as lively.  Usually the SOLDIER's taciturn attitude suited him perfectly, even if it was just an act put on for his benefit.  

// I wonder what he'd do if I told him to take it down a notch. Some days I swear he's more of a rules-dick than I am… and that just shouldn't be possible. //  Smirking at his strange mood, he gestured for the SOLDIER to proceed him, and settled into his own aircraft without further comment.  With the sound-damping earphones on the engine noise was almost tolerable, the pilot's voice, tinny-sounding through the small microphone gave him a brief run down on the weather and flight plan. Sephiroth gave the man the confirmation he needed, ok'ed the orders, and then slouched back into his harness.  They had seven hours in the air before they hit Mideel and he fully planned to be napping for as many of them as he could bear to.  Lifting with a gentle lurch, the helicopters pulled themselves into the sky, circling the mammoth city as they set off for the first leg of their journey.

*****

The hodgepodge pile of barrels mud and canvas that did duty as the camp's outer perimeter gave him energy he didn't know he had. Hoisting his commander a little higher on his shoulder Zack ignored burning muscles and prayed someone noticed he was coming enough to lay a little cover-fire if needed.  The forest had been uncannily silent after the explosion that had claimed most of the unit. He wasn't certain if it was because the hostiles had decided to send him back as a warning, or if his ears were simply too deadened by the blast to be able to pick out the telltale sounds of movement in the brush.  Whatever the reason, he silently paid thanks that he has survived thus far, and concentrated on getting into the relative safety of the fortified wall before some impatient sniper decided to make a statement by blowing him away in sight of home.

// Still no sign of Hollis… //

He crushed the worries down, determined to think about what had gone wrong later. There was nothing he could do to help his missing friend. It would be all he could do to make sure the major didn't end up like the rest of the men left behind in the jungle. The officer needed help and quickly.  The barricaded was pulled aside with seconds to spare. He all but fell through it and into the waiting crowd of worried spectators. Someone was kind enough to lift the comatose officer off his shoulder. Someone else pushed a canteen into his hands. The water tasted metallic and warm, but it was enough to give him his voice back. 

"Where's the colonel…?"

"In his tent… he… I think he thinks he's the president again…" 

"…How's the major…?"

"Not good… Zack… we need…"

"I know…"  The shaggy haired specialist grimaced bitterly. "… Materia. Cure, the stronger the better…"

"Yeah and the only one…"

Pulling himself up and straightening his shoulders, Zack's face lost even the attempt at a smile. "I'll get it."

"…but…"

"Leave it to me." His tone didn't allow for disagreement, and torn between worry and relief, the medic simply nodded. "I'll get it back where it belongs… one way or another."

It was almost funny the way the anger went a long way towards clearing his head.  Exhaustion melted away under the hot, sharp emotion, stripping the confusion around him down into two manageable categories, assets and obstacles. Zack pushed through the last few spectators as politely as he could given that he wanted to do nothing more than start bashing their heads together to make them take action for themselves. He wasn't going to just sit idly by as yet another officer died, not from the enemy but from orders that simply made no sense. 

Something in his mood must have been apparent on his face because a path cleared for him leading straight up to the commander's hut.  Colonel Clark didn't like visitors, especially unannounced ones. The crowd was half torn between awe at their friend for challenging the old man, and fear that they too would feel the fall-out from what was certain to be a court-martial in the making. 

Zack found the control somewhere to remember to knock, once, in a business like manner on the colonel's door. He didn't wait for the reply. Putting the thin wooden barrier between him and the staring men in the yard, he took a breath to steady himself. The room was dark, was always dark, and smelled unmistakably like it was home to a man who left it very rarely, not even to shower. His commanding officer was suitably startled at his arrival, flapping his arms scare-crow like in the baggy confines of his filthy uniform. 

"Treason! Treason, Mr. Thomson… I'll have you hung for this you slum-dweller, you bush-rat… you _native lover… Get Out! How dare you trespass on our… my… presidential slumber…"_

"Give me the cure Materia, sir. And I'll leave."

"Never, I'll not have those _demon-gems getting out! Going where they please!  They control the mind you know! You _Know_?! I must… Protect you from them… They whisper… _Whisper_… such naughty little secrets… Little puss-gems scavenged from the earth… like __scabs… like __gallstones… They're mine… Mine you hear? Mine to give, mine to keep… I am absolute! I am the one who decides life and death… Good and evil…"_

Having neither the time nor the patience to put up with the man's delusions, Zack moved predatorily towards the official looking storage chest. It was usually locked. The Materia's official carrying-case was supposedly more than a little challenging to break into. Ideally there would be two keys to open it, each of the senior officers having to sign for the contents before any of the precious gems were distributed.  Given that both keys were now in the hands of a raving mad-man, the soldier wasn't above admiring the irony of the situation. A metallic click brought his attention fully back on the older officer. 

Clark's eyes were dilated well beyond what was needed in the murky room, giving him an even more psychotic aspect than usual. Zack felt a moment's alarm as he recognized the business end of a handgun pointed at him, but reconsidered when he saw how hard it was for his commander to even pretend to aim.  He was almost certain the man had to be seeing double, or perhaps triple, seeming as content to threaten shadows or hallucinations as he was on targeting his unwanted guest. Carefully watching the gun track across him and back, trying to cover all attackers at once, he almost felt pity for the neurotic man. 

Sympathetic or not, he had no intention of getting shot. He locked eyes with his commander as he stepped back, maneuvering himself a step closer to the small cabinet that held the jewel-likes stones.

// … and now the real question of the day… is he crazy enough to really shoot someone… he shot Paulo… we didn't even have a chance to try and revive him… crazy, sure, but still a damn good shot… //

The colonel giggled nervously, waving his weapon in an almost dare. "Well, what are you waiting for boy…? Go on… it's not locked…"

Zack froze, his fingers on the handle behind him as he stared the man down. "… what have you done, colonel?"  

Giggling again, the gaunt officer simply waved him on, maniac grin making his face look even more skeletal. Cursing his luck, the soldier glanced over his shoulder to see what was so funny, knowing before he turned that the chest would be empty. Moving on instinct he dove to the right, a half second too slow. Clinically, the specialist noted the way the bullet tore a clean hole through his shoulder, almost spinning him as he moved to intercept. Shock was a wonderful thing, his body cooperatively ignoring the trauma for the necessary seconds it took him to get back on his feet and disarm the scrawny base commander.  His fingers were clumsy as they curled around the weapon.

// Maybe it hit something important after all… // 

The injury would have to wait. Applying his newly-won pistol to the colonel's forehead, he put his full weight on the older man's chest, pinning him to the ground. "… where's the Materia, colonel…?"

"I… don't…"

"Enough. Where is it?" Assaulting a superior officer was definitely a court-martial offense. He wondered if shooting out a kneecap to make his point would get him anything worse then he already merited. Deciding to see if something a trifle less direct would be enough to rattle the heavily drugged soldier, he shot the floorboards a few inches from his ear instead. Clark would have cringed if he had been able to move, as it was he simply whimpered and twitched. 

"… bottom drawer…" 

Shaking his captive once more to make certain his point has been made, Zack staggered upright and moved to the desk. A second bullet made a passable lock-pick and the drawer disgorged its contents. The otherwise empty bin revealed a small but sparkling mound of treasure. Mostly greens and yellows with a scattering of blues, they twinkled in proximity with one another like fireflies at sunset. The dark haired trooper didn't have time to appreciate it. Picking a green at random he checked its etched markings and dropped it to the floor in favor of another, and another. Luckily there weren't that many gems in the jumbled heap. He sighed in relief as he found the one he wanted. 

Clark wasn't where he had left the man. Crawling like a sort of bug, the maddened officer had scuttled towards the door. Zack halted him with an ungentle foot on his back, pressing him back to the floor. "Now now… no slithering away… If I'm going to declare you medically unfit, I think I'll need to get you to the doctor first, don't you think?"

"_Savage_… _demon spawn_… jungle…"  The man didn't seem to notice that he was foaming, ever so slightly, at the mouth.  It was disturbing to say the least.  

"Stay put."  Two steps brought him to the door, opening it on the crowd of frightened faces.  Their looks didn't improve to see him still standing. He picked two men out of the crowd that seemed the least stunned. "Reber, Stook. Escort the colonel to medical if you please, and see that he is… kept from harming himself or others."

"Yes sir."

"Your shoulder, Zack."  Someone, he momentarily couldn't attach a name to the face, stepped up to apply a rough tourniquet to his arm. Looking down he was startled at the amount of blood.

// I was right. He still is a good shot. //

"… I'm going to medical… see if I can get the major back on his feet… or failing that some stitches…"  Feeling a little wobbly, he was more than happy to lean against the helping hands. 

"… somebody keep an eye out for Hollis… and take stock of what's in the old man's office?"

"Yes sir."

"Groovy. I'll see ya later then."  Somehow or another, the medical tent appeared in front of him and he directed his uncooperative feet to get him where he needed to be.  

*****

The aroma of antiseptic and stale sweat was almost suffocating after the humid but admittedly fresher air outside.  Zack tried to be useful as he was helped onto a bench and propped upright to await his turn with the already frazzled medic, but found his movements hazy and slow.  He closed his eyes to keep the room from spinning. Shock wearing to its end, his shoulder set up to throb steadily, the painfully swollen feeling hard to ignore. 

// Don't complain moron, it really could have been worse… // 

When they had shipped him out of Midgar he had thought it would be an _end_ to his turbulent military career. Some reconsideration was definitely in order. He hadn't put his name on the piece of paper just to be shot at by some psycho superior officer. That's what the /enemy/ was for after all.  Not for the first time, he wondered if there was a single capable commanding officer in the entire Shinra establishment. Daring to crack an eye open, he found he lacked the will to focus beyond the end of his nose. 

Major Mallory's soft moans sounded as if they were coming from miles away instead of a few cots over. Zack turned his head vaguely in that direction, wondering how the man was doing. A shadow fell across him and distracted him from his efforts. The grizzled looking medic kept up a steady litany of epithets that truly impressed the hell out of him even if he couldn't make his mouth work to say so. Everything felt rather wooly. "Zack? Come on man, keep it together for a second. Looks like there's no exit point so I'm going to have to fish out the slug before we patch you up."

"… delightful."  Blinking, he found he could focus on the stubbled cheek if he tried. A sharp, wickedly attention grabbing pain managed to cut through the fog obscuring everything. He jerked a little despite himself, not able to move far with strangers pinning his arms. 

Another moment of blinding pain, and a uniquely memorable sound of metal grating wetly on bone, and the doctor pulled back with a satisfied sigh. "Nothing to it." 

The dark man panted for breath. In between gulps of air, his confused ears thudded in a steady rhythm. At first he thought it just his heartbeat, but the thudding sound was too mechanical and far too faint. 

// … not me…? Then what…? //  He didn't have the energy to speculate. 

"Easy, lieutenant, I'm going to use the Materia now, remember the drill… Don't tense up, keep your mind passive, don't try to fight it… It _should_ make you feel drowsy…"

"… right."  Zack swallowed dryly. He doubted he could have interfered with the gem's working if he wanted to. After the battering and abuse it had taken all day, his body had precious little fight left in it. Somehow he found the momentum to catch the older man by the sleeve, "… Hollis?"

"I'll keep an eye out for him..."  

"… he can't die… still owes me money…" 

"Hush, trooper. We can handle things from here…" The medic's voice was full of grumbling amusement. "… Damned over achieving kids these days…"  A cool tingling that started in his chest spread with liquid smoothness through out his overtired muscled. The sensation concentrated for a blissful moment in his shoulder, soothing the torn and achy feelings before slowly fading away.  Seeming miles away he heard excited shouts in the distance, the cheerful noise a strange contrast with the mechanical 'whump whump whump' growing louder by the minute. 

//… choppers… sounds like… choppers? //

Despite his best intentions, the specialist fell asleep.

Looking down at his patient, the field medic made a quick executive decision. He could hear the sound of incoming transports just as well as the rest of the camp. Whatever they were coming for, what they were about to find was none to good. 

"… Get me a 'sleep' Materia. I think the lieutenant here deserves a chance for a nice long nap to aid his recovery…"  He glared at his confused orderly until the younger man moved to obey. "… He's done more than enough butt-saving for all of us for one day, least we can do is return the favor… If anyone asks, he's medically unfit for visitors or questioning. If they challenge it, send them directly to me." 

A sandy blond head poked into his tent, the face almost a perfect match for his fatigues, coated with mud and smoke. The younger man still had leaves stuck to his collar and neck from a sprint through the brush. "Shit, is Zack…?"

"Ah, there you are! He was asking after you… Injuries?"

"No sir."

"Perfect. Just what I wanted to hear" The doctor wiped the blood off his hands and stood up. "… Who's the ranking able-bodied officer in camp now? I've lost track."

Hollis blinked, looking at his sleeping friend and up at the surly medic. "I think _you_ are, lieutenant."

"… Well shit."  Gesturing for the last of the specialists to follow him, he went out to await the new arrivals.

_***** _

His first impression of Wutai was that the arid rocky highlands were like the prows of ships rising above the dense vegetation that blanked the south half of the island. Reports stated that the forests grew sparser to the north, but he didn't feel like risking a helicopter to get a closer look at the remote capitol city.  He wasn't here to cause any incidents, if anything, he would have more than enough to do just taking care of the disaster Heidigger had blindly allowed to happen. The fat fraud of a general had undoubtedly held back when he gave his briefing, now it was only a matter of finding out how badly reality conflicted with the reported facts.

His group of aircraft swung around in a tight arc over the shallows, veering off from the main island towards the south. Amid the solid wall of green, there was a man-made excavation along the edge of the coast, an eyesore of a settlement that was to be his home for the next few weeks.  Knowing he wouldn't be heard above the roar of the turbine, he signaled his SOLDIERs to prepare for arrival with a flick of his fingers.  

The first men were jumping from the chopper even as it was jockeying for a smooth landing on the muddy excuse for a parade ground. Sephiroth let them go ahead of him, mentally gearing himself for the unpleasantness about to begin.  The camp likely had no warning what so ever that he was coming. God only knew what the officer's reaction would be to their sudden shift _down the pecking order would be. His ducked his head as he slid free of the cramped craft, mindful of his height, and the whirlwind caused by the still spinning rotor. _

// 'SOLDIER leader slain by hair-mishap, Heddiger blames non-regulation coiffure… pictures at eleven'… //

His dark humor died as he looked around for the first time at what he had to work with.  The base was little better than a set of corrugated tin shacks with thatched roofs and dilapidated tents, surrounded by a wall of what could only be a mud and wood stockade, bolstered by tires and empty cargo crates. At first he thought the entire camp had turned out to greet him, but a rough count proved the number to be only around half the expected population. Every one of them was mud covered, wounded, underfed, or several all at once. They looked more like refugees than proud Shinra personnel.

Two of the men, one old, one young, gingerly stepped forwards to greet them. Neither of their faces were familiar despite him having memorized the profiles of the ranking officers of Kobani. They looked justifiably startled by his sudden arrival, salutes a little sloppy, although he couldn't guess if it was from disuse or from surprise. 

"… Sir? Welcome to Kobani Coastal Mining, General."  The grizzled man's eyes had flicked frantically over him, obviously taking in the lack of standard uniform, and finally the discrete insignia etched into his shoulder guards. "… I am senior acting medical officer, Lieutenant Kip Ferris, at your service sir…" Pointing to his younger assistant, the doctor paused to gather his thoughts. "… This is Lieutenant Matthew Hollis, Specialist."

Sephiroth stared at the two men for a moment, letting the reality sink in. "… You… are the ranking officers on base…?"

"We still have one major, one lieutenant-colonel, and a first-lieutenant, sir. But none of them are currently medically fit for duty." The man's expression was distinctly sour.  Lieutenant Hollis simply looked nervously around at the seasoned SOLDIERs who were securing the helicopters. Clearing his throat, the doctor gingerly introduced the question of the hour. "… with all due respect sir… what brings you to Kobani, sir?"

Letting out a silent sigh, he pushed his disbelief aside. "… I am General Sephiroth." He watched as some of the older troopers in the crowd looked up in interest, the rest in blank incomprehension. "I have been sent here to ascertain exactly _what_ has been happening here in the past few months that has resulted in three missing ships and… the loss of your _entire chain of command."_

"Amen."  Ferris' quiet comment seemed heartfelt.

"… You say that Colonel Clark is still… alive?"

The doctor's expression grew cold again. "You could say that, sir. You'll be wanting to see him, of course."

"If at all possible…"  Something about the sallow medic's tone implied he wasn't too happy about the idea of the introduction.  Sephiroth filed the reaction away for future analysis. 

"Right this way, sir." Ferris waited patiently as he turned to signal his officers to secure the area. Nodding that he was ready, the general followed the ragtag pair of officers towards a rickety looking building with a white cross hastily painted on the side. He didn't need enhanced vision to detect the shadow of a blast-mark and the residual dent halfway up the side of the wall. The only question was, who the hell had been stupid enough to accidentally hit the side of the field hospital with an ice spell. 

// What the hell has happened to this place… and where the hell _is_ everybody… //

The answer was perfectly clear once he had stepped through the door. They were all inside.  The low beamed warehouse, for that must have been its original function, was filled to capacity with wounded men, burns, breaks, and bullet wounds on either side of what seemed like an unending aisle.  At the end, a small curtain gave the final occupant some privacy. The doctor, paused, giving him an odd look. 

"… I've given him a shot of T-40 to calm him down, but even sober, he doesn't tend to make very much sense. I suggest talking slowly, and repeating yourself often."

Sephiroth simply raised an eyebrow at the information, peering past the curtain at the twitching figure on the bed before looking back. "… Maybe you should fill me in on exactly what is going on, lieutenant."

The tired looking doctor moved to hold open a door to what looked like a tiny office. "Right this way, sir." 

Smirking humorlessly, he pointed to a chair, and then moved to a small safe behind his desk. "… Can I offer you a drink, general? No? In that case I hope you don't mind if I indulge."  

_*****_

-Lunar


	2. part 2

***SeaLion**** Blues* (part 2)**

_A little AU, FF7 fic for Zack, because he deserves one._

Opening Notes:

-I am taking extreme liberties with the time line, so there.  :-P

//…// for thoughts. Standard disclaimers apply.

*********************

Zack woke up on his own, floating to wakefulness with the suddenness of a cork bobbing to the surface.  He blinked, not recognizing the ceiling he was staring at. The air, thick with the smell of misery, was also a far cry from the musty comforts of his tent.  He propped himself on his elbow, forgetting for a moment that it had been injured.  To his pleasant surprise, it only ached distantly rather then any less friendly complaint.  

// … Right. Cure Materia… handy stuff to have around… //  

Pulling himself together, he sat up and then stood in easy stages. Finally confident he wouldn't suddenly fall over he stretched and tiptoed down the long gallery towards the door.  Most of the other occupants of the infirmary seemed to be asleep, and judging by the lack of light, it was either very very late, or rather early. He stuck his head through the office door at the end of the hall, Kip was asleep at his desk, head down amidst his folders.  It looked as though he had tried to do a full report and dozed off half way through.  Reaching over, he gently shook the man to life.

"Oi. Lieutenant Ferris… are you sleeping on watch?"

"Huh? You?" Scrubbing his face, the sallow officer gave him a look. "… how's your shoulder?"

"Fine, fine. What the hell are you up to here…? Looks like you've pulled every file you own, man." He grinned. "You checking for ant infestation or something?"

"No… no… the general asked for a full listing of all wounded and killed… as soon as possible… so I thought it was best to get started…"

Zack blinked, but the sentence still didn't make sense. "What do you mean 'general'…?"

"You're on your way out, are you? Well watch your step and mind your manners… Midgar finally got off its ass and decided to send down some new leadership."  

"No kidding… they sent out a /general/… I mean, sure we're in trouble, but that's a little excessive." 

"Well it's not Heidigger, if that's what you're worried about."  The doctor reached down behind his desk and produced a half-finished fifth of scotch. "Drink?"

"I just woke up." He waved it away laughing. "And I've got a feeling _you_ should be going to bed."

"In a while… It's only… god… 4 am… plenty of time for sleep…" 

"So who'd they send? Someone competent I hope…"

Ferris shrugged, "Your guess is as good as mine, but if rumor is to be believed, General Sephiroth is rapidly earning the nickname 'the incorruptible'…"

"… I heard about him… some sort of super-man…" Scratching his chin, he gave up with a smirk. "He'll figure things out I guess."

"He'll want to talk to you first thing in the morning."

"Hell, I'll talk to him _now_… I'm awake…"

"You also look like you brought half the jungle with you, Zack. Go wash up if you don't feel like sleeping. Just don't go picking fights with the SOLDIERs, they seem a high-strung bunch if you ask me."  The man moved to take another swig from the bottle but found it pinned to the desk. "I don't question your eccentricities, trooper… kindly don't question mine."

"Go to sleep, Ferris…" Zack winked, "That's an order."

"Yeah yeah." The older officer shook his head in amusement. "That reminds me. Hollis said to tell you, you owe him big time. I didn't think to ask 'for what' so you'll just have to go ask him yourself."

Pleased at the news that the worry-wart blond had survived, the specialist tossed a brief salute to his friend and left to find a clean shirt.  His smile turned wicked as he walked across camp. Why go through the effort of washing one of his own shirts, when Hollis always kept an immaculate spare under his bedding?  All he would have to do was get it.  After all, what were bunkmates for but to help each other out in times of need.

*********************

The group of specialists was as ragtag-looking as the rest of the camp, standing in a loose clump on the far side of the crowd awaiting morning inspection. Somewhere among them was supposedly the ranking officer on base. Sephiroth decided to make the first move. 

The sooner he had the men in line, the sooner he could move to regain control of the area. He had no desire to waste time in meaningless power struggles. None of the three men could claim to be older than twenty-five at his best guess. The general frowned, remembering that the original commander of the troop had fallen with the first burst of rebel activity. One of them, the blond, was the young Mr. Hollis from the evening before. He looked too spooked to be of any use. 

It took a moment to remember the name of the second in command. He cleared his throat to get the other's attention. "I assume one of you is Lieutenant Thomson…?"  

One of the others, already in his greasepaint looked at him in vague interest as Hollis stuttered a greeting, the third man was the last to respond, preoccupied with his gear. 

"That would be me." He had a wildly unruly mop of dark hair. Sephiroth couldn't help but stare at it, silently amused by its antics. It bobbed like the fronds of a palm tree as the officer finished lacing his boot with a vicious twist of the abused ties and stood up to offer a vaguely correct salute. "Lieutenant first-class, Zachary Thomson at your service, sir." 

Sephiroth blinked, feeling more than hearing the challenge in the lazy drawl. There was nothing obviously assuming about the darkly tanned soldier. Even standing a few inches taller than his subordinates he was a head shorter than Sephiroth himself. Height was often an advantage with first impressions, having to look up seemed to naturally cow people.  The pale officer looked over his unlikely new officer, and almost frowned to see what could only be an amused twinkle in the depths of the dark eyes. He had been expecting anger or fear, even disgust. He had seen it all before. Humor however was something he'd never encountered. 

// Laughing at me are we Mr. Thomson…? Enjoy it while you can. // 

The combat specialist's laidback attitude was more irritating then it should have been. Even after several minutes under his cool inspection, the man refused to flinch. His lack of reaction was unusual, unpredictable. The general gritted his teeth in frustration, willing the soldier to back down. If anything, it only made the baffling man worse. The spark behind the placid eyes warmed until it was positively wicked. Determined to not get sucked into something as childish as a staring match with the rank-and-file, Sephiroth deliberately looked away, appraising the others before turning back to his inspection. 

The battered condition of the lieutenant's uniform and boots were explainable given the conditions the tiny base had been operating under for the past months. He had seen the 'colonel' of the beleaguered camp. Informing him that he had been replaced was only a formality. The man had been too busy swatting at imaginary bugs to offer any complaint about his treatment. It was no wonder that the troops had taken things into their own hands. 

The general noted the regulation-issue assault riffle clipped neatly to the holster around the soldier's chest. The five-foot long swath of polished metal strapped to his back was a little more unusual. A weapon of that weight wouldn't have been out of place in the SOLDIER unit, but on a standard trooper it was mammoth.

"Nice sword."

"… thank you sir."

"I didn't think troopers were allowed to have non-standard gear."

"Perks of being a specialist, sir." 

The lieutenant's reply was just a little too glib, almost daring him to scold. Sephiroth found himself rising to take the bait. "… Can you actually fight with that over-grown machete, or is it just for show?" 

The pale man had the grim pleasure of finally seeing the shorter man flinch. It was unfair to pick on the specialist's gear perhaps, but he needed _something_ to put him in his place, and his obviously absurd weapon was an easy target. 

The dark man opened and closed his mouth, obviously biting off a less-than-disciplined reply. Settling for a shrug, he adjusted the straps attaching the gigantic sword to his shoulder. "It gets the job done, sir." 

"… And you don't find it slows you down in combat?"

"I don't know. sir, I've never had a fight last that long… sir." Sephiroth raised an eyebrow, acknowledging the fairness of the rebuttal. He could have called the man on professionalism, but the lieutenant's popularity was easy to read in the faces of their silent audience. He sighed, deciding to take what he could get. 

"You work quickly, Mr. Thomson."

"I earn my pay."

"That's good to hear. I have already seen, and _seen _to_ your former commander. While I can understand your need for independent action over the past months…"_

"With all due respect, sir." The general blinked as he was politely cut off. 

"We know we're a little rough on discipline and the like… but we're ready to work." The specialist grinned. "And more than ready to get some reinforcements."

"… good."  Not knowing how else to respond to the motley crew of survivors, the general crammed his hands in his pockets and sighed. "Morning inspection is irrelevant at this point. If you'll come with me lieutenant, I would like to be briefed on the past few months, and then we will see what we can do to get things back in order."

"Yessir."

The relieved sigh from the loose crowd of troopers was audible as they dispersed for their morning duties. 

"… God, where to begin." 

Zack remained blessedly silent as he took a moment to look around the collection of soggy looking tents and worn-out looking wooden shacks that summed up the mining outpost. It wasn't much to work with. 

He began to regret that he had only brought a handful of SOLDIERs with him. Several of them would be needed for transportation alone. There were far too many injured already from the constant sniping from the jungle. He needed coffee, and for his headache to wait a few hours before kicking in with a vengeance. Somehow he was certain neither wish would be granted. The general made a promise to himself to have the first supply ship available diverted in their direction. 

Waving a gloved hand, he caught the young officer's attention. "Come along Mr. Thomson. The sooner we get the injured heading back to Junon, the sooner I'll know what I have to work with."

The darker man blinked in surprise and followed him back to his office.

*********************

There was plenty to keep busy with after that. Everyone able was set to packing up those incapable of packing themselves.  To Zack's disbelief, not only did someone respond promptly to the general's demands for a convoy, but the ships arrived on time as well.  After a day of hauling bags to the shore of the cove, he could only stare in dubious awe as the planned-for transport arrived. It even had air support, the general's monstrous Gelinka helicopters floating along ahead and then their way overhead and down into the center of camp.  It was almost enough to make him believe that Midgar gave a rat's ass about their little outpost.

He signaled Hollis and they headed back to camp. As much as had been done, there were still a few more bales to shift.  On the way they passed two SOLDIERs each carrying a pair of oversized truck tires over their shoulders like pool toys. They didn't even have the decency to act like their burdens were heavy; hauling the several-hundred-pound rubber weights as if there were nothing.  SOLDIERs, he shook his head in amazement. They really were a breed apart.  The second pair of bio-engineered men that they passed on the trail at least were familiar. 

He raised a hand to greet Pavan as he stepped out of the man's way.  It was strange to remember that he had started at the same time as the massive officer.  Everything about the black man seemed to have gotten bigger since he had last seen him.  Glowing eyes or not, he was still the stiff bastard he had been during basic training. If anything, the mythical 'SOLDIER conversion process' had only made him more like himself.

// Scary shit… go in a normal joe-schmoe… come out… one bad mother fucker… //  He scooped up another set of ruck-sacks and started back towards the beach.  // That's if you come out at all… //

It wasn't something he particularly felt like thinking about.  He had a few friends, not close ones, and not many, but a few who had applied, been accepted, and never seen again.  There were reasons after all why Shinra didn't have all SOLDIERs.

// Pavan came out OK though… didn't go crazy like the rumors said you can… //

He resolved to ask the man about it later.  Right now he just had his hands full trying to keep up.  Once they were done with the cargo, they'd start on the people.  The number of evacuees from the camp was staggering.  By the time the last ship left, they'd be down to skeleton staff.  

Mentally he began to sort through duty slots and available men, automatically disregarding the new SOLDIERs as they all outranked him anyway.  Nominally in charge of the 'original group' for the time being, he didn't kid himself into thinking that it was any reflection on his leadership skills.  The others trusted him a hell of a lot more then they did the super-soldiers or some newly-arrived brass. His acting as a go-between was simply convenient for the general, and the man would exploit it until he was no longer necessary.  It didn't change the fact that they would soon be short staffed in a number of tedious but essential camp-duties, including cleanup, and in the kitchen. Dumping his load of bags, he turned and trudged back, not even stopping to appreciate the pretty view. 

// I don't think there'll be a problem getting Pavan and company to pick up the slack as far as patrols and crap… that's what they're here for a after all… but somehow I don't see the big guy volunteering to dig ditches and wash socks. //

It'd get taken care of.  His guys weren't completely useless to have around. They could do a bit of drudgery for a while if it meant someone else was getting shot at for a change.  If anything, they'd probably look forward to it.  He looked over his shoulder. "Oi. Holly-boy."

"Have I mentioned that I really hate that nickname?"

"Once or twice," he grinned. "You know how to cook?"

"Hell no."

"Hmmmm, know anybody who does?"

"Sure, the doc's not bad… why…?"

"Guess who passengers number 13 through 16 are…"

The blond blinked and groaned. "We're losing all three cooks?"

"They're all non-coms… the general said they had to go."

"He's insane… we'll all be eating cold beans for weeks… unless that helicopter just brought us a new one…"

"If it did, I'm hitting the man over the head with a board and leaving him in the jungle." Zack made a face. "I remember Shinra cooking, even if you don't."

"… Something's better than nothing…"

"I'll take care of it." The dark haired man shrugged philosophically. "I can't do any worse then they do." 

"Can you do scrambled eggs?"

"Sure… like little happy fluffy clouds… why?"

"Cook breakfast tomorrow and I'll even volunteer to do the washing up…"

The wild-haired man chortled and slapped him on the back. "Now that my friend, sounds like a plan."

Hollis just rolled his eyes and lead the way on 'lap number thirty-six' of their hauling-things-to shore duty.  Zack nodded at the doctor and one of his orderlies as they carried a stretcher in the opposite direction.  

He hadn't laid eyes on the general after his debriefing and _that had been right after breakfast. Presumably the man was hard at work dealing with the disaster that their previous commander had called his record keeping. For all he knew the pale-haired officer was napping the afternoon away. _

There was something strange about the SOLDIER. He just couldn't quite put his finger on it.  The general had certainly been more than fair, really after all he'd done he had been expecting a serious dressing-down.  What he had gotten was a mild scolding in comparison to some of his previous rules-bending. Zack wasn't sure whether it was because it he wasn't worth the austere man's time, or that the SOLDIER just didn't care one-way -or-another what he did, so long as he didn't get in the way. He'd have to ask Pavan about that too, when he got the chance.  The day stretched on however, hauling, and more hauling, and just when his back felt it would give out, more hauling still.  Nobody was surprised to be eating cold beans for dinner.  Half of them were too tired to bother eating at all.  Kicking off his boots and falling into bed, Zack remembered to fiddle with his alarm clock cranking it an hour earlier even as his brain rebelled at the lost sleep.  Being cook meant first dibs on the brand-spanking-new cases of coffee and other tasty vittles waiting patiently in the kitchen. If that wasn't worth getting up for, nothing was.

*****

"Some eggs, general?" The dark-haired man grinning at him from behind the serving counter was all too familiar. 

Apparently with the evacuation of most of the support personnel, everyone was filling in the duty-gaps where they could. Sephiroth hadn't bothered to think about it in the flurry of activity the day before. He had simply assumed, and assumed correctly, that his officers would handle the details of duty assignments without bothering him about it.  It was irony therefore that the one person that he didn't feel precisely up to dealing with in the morning, was the man now trying to serve him breakfast. A most of day to himself hadn't made dealing with the camp's resident 'big brother' any easier. If anything a night's rest and fresh provisions had made the man even more exuberant.  Thomson looked completely comfortable and carefree in the cook's apron, would probably look just as relaxed and at home in a chicken-suit. The general frowned, able to visualize the costume all too well.

"What are you doing, lieutenant?"

"Serving breakfast, sir. There's cream for your coffee down along the end with the silverware…" 

Following the tilt of the shorter man's head he was distracted and forgot to refuse the full tray being pushed into his hands. He blinked and looked down. There was in addition to the coffee, several slices of toast, bacon, and a generous mound of scrambled eggs. The whole plate was done up to resemble some sort of demented smiley-face.  

// What the hell? //

It all would have looked edible enough if he had had any plans of _eating_. The small mess-hall was full of the usual morning chatter, but the table nearest the counter had grown subdued. His team from Midgar was the most familiar with his likes, dislikes, and traditional breakfast habits. If he turned, there would be no question that they'd be watching him, waiting to see what he would do.

// Waiting for me to dish out some new and novel punishment for this damnably over-cheerful Section-Eight-Discharge-to-be… //

"I drink my coffee black, Mr. Thomson." Looking at his 'chef,' there was no mistaking something devilish in the dark-brown eyes. The young trooper had somehow gone from being an annoyance to being an adversary over night. It was impossible, but he couldn't deny it. The man simply would not back down and behave in an appropriately cowed manner.

"I'm sorry to hear that…" The expressive eyes blinked once in perfectly pretended innocence before the man remembered his place. "... sir."

For a moment Sephiroth wondered if the man would challenge him after all, but a clatter distracted the mop-headed officer and he turned away with a comical expression. Some emergency was apparently in progress with the griddle.  Left alone, the general stalked to an empty corner of the room, claiming it as his own. He sat down and swore to himself. He had forgotten to leave the tray behind. The little smiley-bacon-lips seemed to be laughing, at _him_. 

// … He's… making fun of me? How… bizarre. //

The behavior would have been more offensive if it wasn't so utterly unexpected. Refusing to bring any further attention to his defeat, he tried a piece of toast.  It tasted like it was supposed to. If he had had any appetite he might have seriously considered just eating the damn meal. Luckily for his pride, his stomach flatly refused the idea of that much intake before noon. He sipped his coffee and ignored the occasional laughter and clattering pots from the kitchen.

// He's…. just _not_ normal. No one is that _happy_ all the time… //

The general found something about the trooper to be frustrating, but he still couldn't tell exactly what it was. That too was frustrating and the cycle seemed more than happy to feed on itself until he either learned what made Mr. Thomson tick, or went mad from trying. The man's motivations were a mystery.

// "I'm not afraid of you"… that's what he said when he was debriefed. Other people have boasted of that, and they were lying. Or even if it was true they still showed… respect? Politeness? // 

The white-haired man frowned into his coffee. He couldn't really fault the lieutenant on either point. Even with his alarmingly laid-back attitude towards the army, he wasn't directly disrespectful or impolite. If anything he seemed 'nicer' than most of the general's first encounters with new subordinates.  Usually some chafing and pride were to be expected from a man in his position.

// After all, I did sort of show up out of nowhere just as he was taking charge… you think he'd be bitter about that. A chance for command taken away just as it was in his grasp? //

Admitting that the specialist didn't seem to care however, opened up very few possible explanations. Either the man was simply mentally damaged, high on drugs, or was actually presenting a truthful front.  Maybe Zack was just… Zack? He shook his head to dismiss the idea.

// While people _say_ the specialists are a little crazy… it's seldom the truth. The ones without a firm grip on reality are usually the first to get weeded out by the training process… Short of the SOLDIER program, theirs would probably be the strictest entrance requirements. //  

He sighed. 

// Which means, even if I was willing to assume it, Mr. Thomson is nobody's moron; a handful perhaps – judging by his profile -- but not stupid. So what does that leave, drugs? //

The general put his mug down before he shattered it by accident in his fist.  The dangers of an officer being mentally affected by 'sampling' local produce had never been more clearly demonstrated then it had been here in Kobani.  Colonel Clark was probably most of the way home to Midgar by now. Carefully bundled in his straight-jacked and under the watchful guard of two SOLDIERs, he would be very well taken care of until Sephiroth had the chance to return home and court marshal the man properly.

// Willful negligence, murder of a subordinate, irresponsible waste of personnel, deliberately violating articles of a treaty… withholding vital provisions… if he wasn't a paranoid schizophrenic even without the drugs… I'd have killed him on the spot. _Bastard… how can one man do _so much damage_… Heidigger… I will have your spleen for letting this get so out of hand. //_

*********************

With the evacuations complete, the settlement had a rather ghostly feel. There was none of the daily hustle-and-bustle that made the ram-shackle tents and buildings more home-like. Most of the half-plywood-half-canvas buildings standing between the sheltering cliffs and the beach were empty, stripped of anything of use after their occupants had been sent to safety. Zack took advantage of the uncluttered route, whistling a vaguely recognizable rendition of 'Wild Night in Midgar' as he dried his hands on a dish towel and headed to the small parade ground. The wobbly tune caused his two companions to snigger. The taller SOLDIER shook his head in disbelief.

"You haven't changed at all, have you Thomson… Damn, when you pulled that stunt in the mess… I thought for sure your ass was going to be tossed into the bay."

"Who me? Change?  As if…" The dark-haired trooper laughed, ignoring the rest of the jibe. ".. but tell me, Pavan, does your pee actually glow in the dark now, or what?"

The large black man had the grace to laugh at the blunt question. "Not yet, although sometimes I wonder…" He rolled his shoulders and settled his padded jacked around him as they walked from the mess tent to the assembly grounds. "Seriously, Zack. How've you been, man…? I expected you'd have been promoted above _lieutenant by now…"_

"Well… shit happens, you know? It's hard to be promoted when my immediate superior takes one to the lung and goes down a month after I get here… and _his_ superior was certifiable…"

"Maybe I can put in a word for you when we get back."

"Oh don't strain yourself on my account, _Captain Jain, Sir… You know I'd just love to be your subordinate for ever and ever and…"_

"Still got that wise-ass mouth…"

"Always. It's part of my charm." Zack greeted his few remaining teammates and nodded respectfully at the SOLDIERs that he didn't know. The general was nowhere to be seen and the men stood waiting for orders now that breakfast was dispensed with. He sighed in annoyance.

"…Of course we wait… grandstanding is a crucial part of every brass' day."

"Dude, I'd shut up if I were you." Pavan and his quieter friend were looking at him as if he was insane. "I've served under Sephiroth for over a year now, and if there is one thing you learn early is that he has _no_ sense of humor."

"He's the king of hard-asses." His crew-cut companion agreed.  They could have been cousins they looked so alike, on a slightly scrawnier version of the other. Zack blinked, wondering if they _were_ related. Stranger things had been known to happen.

"He's a machine. But he knows his shit." Both of the bio-engineered men nodded grimly. 

"Yeah yeah… I know. He's been pretty cool so far."

"I mean it Zack… I'd love to see more of you, you're a funny guy. But seeing more of you because you've got latrine-cleaning duties for the rest of your life isn't what I'd call 'something to hope for.'"

"Hey now… I'd make sure they were the cleanest, freshest thing you'd ever see."

"Don't even joke about that." Pavan shook his head in disbelief again before looking over the specialists in a professional manner. "Best prepare for inspection… Your hair looks like a haystack, Thomson."

"_Thanks_, captain." He winced as his old friend gave him a good-natured noogie. Any hope his hair would lay remotely flat was officially gone. "Way to lend a hand." 

"When will you get serious and stop being the class clown?" The dark skinned man sighed. "You're better than this shitty outfit, even before it got decimated…"

"I sorta liked it here before the crap hit the fan… scenic, you know?  Besides, my uncle always told me a man was nothing without a sense of humor."

The older man shrugged, conceding defeat. "Well… you do have a way of keeping things lively… even if the general is likely to name his first ulcer after y-" His jaw snapped shut on the last word, his commander had arrived. 

"Attention!"

Sighing over lost opportunities, they all straightened their backs and prepared to receive orders. Sephiroth did not disappoint.

"Gentlemen…"  There was something rather charming about the way Sephiroth could snap out the word. It sounded important when he said it, both official and yet respectful.

// I bet he could say 'booty call' and have it sound like meaningful prose… someone should get him to read the news on the radio… //

The idea of the stiff-necked general doing anything of the sort was almost enough to send him into a fit of laughter. Biting his tongue, he forced his face to remain blank until the critical stare had swept past his corner of the parade grounds.

// Damn but something about him brings out the absolute worst in me… that 'classic bully' attitude that begs to be pulled down a peg… // 

The pale man was on the move, stepping past the groups of men as Pavan and his other ranking officers moved to join him in an unofficial conference.

Zack watched the trailing ends of the long hair as it floated by and dearly wished he dared to reach out and yank it.  It was an unusual eccentricity for such a high ranking officer, certainly it succeeded in making him stand out in a crowd.  Between that and the meticulously finished black leather gear, the man looked like something out of a sci-fi movie more than a career officer.  Hair like that had to make the women back home scream with jealously. An exotic looking young general in leather pants, he had to be the hottest shit around Midgar.  Even before he had been shipped off to 'learn his lesson' the lowly lieutenant Thomson had heard some of the stories. They only made him want to tug the off-limits locks even more.

// Just a little… just as a joke…//  There was no joking about the certainty of being split down the middle by the general's favorite sword. As tall as the man was, taller, it was an improbable and impressive sight.  The tip nearly touched the ground behind the general's left heel and its hilt rose easily a foot above his right shoulder. It was a _big_ sword, but as far as the trooper could tell, it wasn't very practical.

// Too long for any sort of efficient close fighting… but still not a projectile weapon, so no good for long-range shit… It'd be like fighting with a boat-oar except you can't go grabbing it by the middle to do any nifty two-handed moves… even if it's only one-sided… it'd be awkward as hell. The minute someone gets inside his swing radius… he's screwed. //  

The specialist frowned, realizing that in all likelihood no one had ever survived against the man long enough for that particular problem to become apparent.  So far the general had been _very_ successful at keeping the world at bay. Oddly, it drove him to wonder if he could be the first; not that he wanted to lose his head to find out.

// Thinks he's too good to play with us mere mortals I bet. But then again… it may not be ego? // 

 Two days of contact with the tall officer had taught him that Sephiroth had pride a plenty, and a cool distant nature, but thus far there had been none of the prissiness that he had been expecting. The pale man was really nothing like any of the other commanders Zack had encountered. He didn't play favorites. He didn't hold grudges. He neither asked for nor received any remarkable special treatment from his men. The only thing the dark-haired man could fault his new commander for was his solitary nature, and that wasn't a flaw in his military ability, just a personal quirk. Watching as the general spoke with his men, the specialist noted that the shadows under the burning green eyes looked darker than the day before.  It might have just been the angle of the sun.

// Then again… half his problem could just be that he never sleeps…? //

Sephiroth was now addressing some of the other survivors. The lieutenant fought to keep his mind on business. It sounded like they were discussing another sortie into the jungle. Zack sighed at the thought.  There was no way they could compete on even footing with the locals without a large aerial support team to scout ahead for them. Even with the influx of SOLDIERs and Materia, it was unlikely that the general understood just how good the locals were.

Looking at the leafy green wall that started a few yards beyond the rough barricade only reminded him of home. It wasn't homesickness, not exactly. Homesickness implied a person wanted to return to somewhere. Zack had decided long ago that Gongaga just hadn't been a place big enough to hold him. Instead of nostalgia, the lush greenery provided him with a complex tangle of regret and guilt. Back home his father would probably never forgive him for running off and joining the army, and here he had buried too many friends in the past month to want to bury anymore. Thinking of his father never did anything for his mood and he pushed the thought away. 

"Mr. Thomson…?" With a sickening lurch, the dark man realized he was the center of attention with no idea what he had just been asked.

"Yes _sir_."  The reply was perhaps too energetic, but at least it was more regulation than the 'huh?' that had almost slipped out. He blessed the brainless drilling of his boot camp days for its convenient brainwashing.

// Always a good answer, even when you don't know the question. //

Pavan took pity enough on him to repeat the question. "Of the specialists still here, you're the one with the most bush experience, right?"

"Yes sir." This time he could answer with confidence. Hollis was a city boy, born-and-bred, James was from Kalm, Penner had a compound fracture that had gone too long for a 'cure' alone to fix and had to be sent home.

"You know the rough layout of the region?"

"Yessir?"

"Good." The SOLDIER turned to his general. "This is your man sir. Probably the best there was even when the station was fully manned, outside of a local."

The pale commander looked unconvinced, but addressed him directly just the same. "I wish to see this 'enemy' of ours for myself. It seems any information I was given about this situation was suspect at best. You can guide me through the territory?"

"Yes sir." Zack blinked, digesting the full nature of the request.

// I've just volunteered to go on a solo-mission with _this guy_? Awe crap-in-a-basket. //

Once again, the conversation moved on without any regard for his attentiveness. Sephiroth assigned his more seasoned subordinates the duties of pulling the camp together into something defensible. Ships with more supplies would be arriving soon but in the meantime the SOLDIERs would have their hands full. The dark-haired man listened and idly wished he could stay behind as an assistant to Pavan or Rick or any of the others. There would have been definite laughs to be had with them in charge of the settlement. However he quietly stood his ground as the rest of the troops split off to go perform their duties. The general was staring at him again, his expression vaguely annoyed.

// Probably still soused about breakfast… You'd think I poisoned it for all he ate. //

"How far out are they?"

"There's a village, well, at least there _was a village not that far from here. About a day's walk under good conditions, maybe longer if we dodge bullets?" _

"Pack what you think is appropriate for us, trooper and report to my tent in an hour."

"Yessir."

// A man cannot live on coffee alone… I wonder if he expects me to pack for him as well… better to be safe than sorry. //  

He paid more attention to his salute than usual, keeping the movement crisp and impersonal before moving to throw whatever he could find into one of the waterproof carry-alls.

********************* 

********************* 

-Lunar


	3. part 3

***SeaLion**** Blues* (part 3)**

_A little AU, FF7 fic for Zack, because he deserves one._

Opening Notes:

-I am taking extreme liberties with the time line, so there.  :-P

//…// for thoughts. Standard disclaimers apply.

*********************  

A less attentive man might not have noticed the tell-tale twinkle in the dark-brown eyes. The Lieutenant had been amused by_ something_, despite his stoic expression. Sephiroth watched the man disappear and retreated to his quarters.

// Great, a two-day trip with _him of all people… // _

It was uncanny how often he turned around and found himself having to deal with the trooper. There was no facet of the camp that Lieutenant Thomson wasn't involved in somehow. He was inescapable, and unfortunately, too competent to have replaced without a struggle.

The general firmly promised himself to make the trip out and back happen as fast as possible. He could have let one, or several of his men make the run. The SOLDIERs were a hardy enough bunch to return intact from whatever he was likely to encounter in the jungle, but hearing the statistics from them wasn't the same as seeing it for himself. If he was going to outmaneuver Heidigger on this little disaster, he would need every card he could play. It wasn't something he could trust to someone else.  

A list of causalities and wounded dispatched to Midgar was waiting for him on his make-shift desk.  The totals on the bottom of the page were staggering for such a small operation. Either the defenses had been manned by incompetents, or the rebels were better than expected.  Having seen who was running the base, Sephiroth grimly accepted that it was likely a mix of both.  He sighed and put the paper down before moving around the room and tucking various supplies into his deep pockets. He had read enough about the history of the situation, now he would just have to start doing something about it.

The knock on his door came sooner than expected.

// Well… better to head out… before I change my mind. At worst I can always leave him behind somewhere and go ahead without him if he's a burden. //

"Come in, lieutenant."

"Sir."

"Are we prepared?"

"I've packed the essentials, rations for a week and the like… getting lost out there is… well it happens, sir."

"I see." The general looked at the shorter man's gear, noting the sword had been left behind, but decided not to say anything about it. Mr. Thomson would have ample opportunities to prove himself, or prove himself a fool in the next day and a half. He would wait and see what would happen.

 "Well then, let's go."

"Yes sir."

_*****_

Zack dared to glance over his shoulder from time to time, staring at his silent trek-companion under the guise of scanning the trees for sign of activity.  The trail was as quiet as a cloister, their usually restless natives seeming to have been scared away by the recent activity around camp. He wasn't fool enough to think the village-militia had left all together. No, they were perched somewhere, watching, biding their time.  From the occasional encounters in his childhood, and the few months of relative sanity in Kobani, he had always been impressed by the patient and meticulous nature of many of the people of Wutai. Not that they were on the whole better or worse than any other group, but culturally, they seemed to be proud of their ability to think things through.  He only hoped that they'd 'think through' how nice a guy he was before deciding whether or not to blow him up.  It didn't help his nerves any that he had a nice high-contrast target following ten-feet behind him.  He hadn't even bothered suggesting a change of gear for the general. He had a hunch it would have just gotten him yelled at. 

// City-folk. Bah. Without the sense given to infants, the lot of them.  Ten points says he wouldn't know the difference between a tree snake and an anaconda until one tried to bite his face off. //  

Of course, that was what _he_ was there for. Zack grimaced, and continued to worry enough for _two since he was certain his superior wouldn't know to bother, or what to even worry about. It was a nerve-wracking business, babysitting brass. If he acted too protective, he'd get his ass kicked by the man, not protective enough, and they'd both end up in a hole, or captured, or just plain hopelessly lost. _

// Or all of the above, in random order. //  

The locals had been deliberately monkeying with the trail, coaxing the wild-growing bamboo to overwhelm it in places, hacking fake new routes to lead the unsuspecting astray.  He had already found and avoided one such trap, paranoia went a long way towards avoiding the others. He peered at a set of thick bushes distrustfully before halting altogether. It was simply too convenient a set up, nice clear path, just wide enough for a man to fit through, bramble on the right, wall of vegetation on the left. Zack felt his superior officer halt a few paces behind him with a sigh. "What is it, lieutenant? Another backtrack? Are we lost already?"

// Serves me right for not pointing out the pit full of sharpened stakes we 'back tracked' from a while ago, he probably just thinks I'm doing this for laughs. //  

He kept his opinion firmly to himself, squashing the impulse to invite the general to go on ahead and get whatever it was right in the face. 

// With my luck it's a false alarm and he'd go right through and think I was a moron instead of just a slacker. //

"Just a minute, general."  Zack was pleased to find he could maintain a façade of civility when faced with the bored look from his superior and bent to fish a longish bit of branch off the jungle floor. He checked it briefly for leeches or fire ants or anything equally unsavory and content his find wouldn't hurt him, moved forwards a bit to gently prod at the bushes. The first few whacks sounded like nothing more exciting than leaves and twigs. The third hit resulted in an audible 'twang.'  He all but threw himself backwards in his quest to get out of the way, avoiding a sudden flurry of wicked looking darts that erupted from the bush to ping in every direction.  One of the nasty looking thorns landed in the dirt near his glove, most of them had embedded themselves into the trees nearby.  He looked up and back, and blinked at the sight of Sephiroth calmly holding one, seeming to have plucked it right out of the air without thinking. The pale man gingerly lowered his arm, staring at the projectile with a soft 'hmmmm'. 

"Fascinating."  

Zack picked up the one nearby and examined it briefly before tossing it into the bush. "Poisoned."

"Plant toxin?"

"Possibly. Or powdered snake venom… or puffer fish… or any number of things… don't feel like testing one to find out."  He picked up his stick and resumed his poking. 

"Surely you've already triggered the trap?"

"Not all of it.  They have this thing they do…" He paused his work, feeling charitable enough to explain now that he wasn't being glared at.  

"Once we started looking for the traps, they got this idea that it'd be funny… to let us find the first one, and then catch us off guard with the second one. Sort of a bait-and-switch routine.  The more obvious the first trap is, the more likely the second one will be a pisser… sir."  The belated memory of _who_ he was lecturing about the basics of guerilla tactics kicked in just in time to save him from looking a complete slob.  He could have kicked himself for the lapse. He had been trying so hard to be well behaved this time too. 

// Not that I know why I bother… I mean, the guy is just weird. But it'd be nice if I didn't manage to piss off _every commanding officer I ever meet, otherwise Pavan is right, I'll be the only lieutenant of 43 years of age who didn't get there by being demoted like the doc was. //_

Sephiroth didn't seem to mind the slip in the slightest, still preoccupied by the overgrown trail. "So what exactly do you look for, with these, double-traps?"

"Well…" He scratched his head, not sure how to answer. "Frankly sir, usually we just go on instinct… sort of put ourselves into their shoes… slippers, whatever."

"… and what do your instincts tell you?" The general's eyes were incandescent in the jigsaw of shadows thrown by the trees, making him look even more surreal than usual.  With his bone white hair and frequent knack for moving silently and then standing perfectly still, Zack had a weird desire to reach out and poke him to see if the man was solid, or actually some sort of ghost. He focused on the question instead, talking through what was idling in the back of his head as he looked carefully at their surroundings. 

"Well, the trap was intended for a large group of men, not just the two of us… so even if someone had spotted it, there would be confusion on the trail, maybe people running forwards or back, trying to get out of the way… a repeat on the dart trick would be particularly mean, hence me beating the bushes some more, but I doubt that's it… so something that would exploit the narrow trail, and the fact that there aren't many ways for a person to run…"

Interested, the general started to look around as well. Zack shrugged, poking the last few sections of plant mass for paranoia's sake before gingerly edging forwards, looking for recent digging in the forest floor or any sort of tripwires.  A second pair of eyes, even a novice's, were always welcome. 

"Mr. Thompson." The mild call caught him just as he was about to check further into the passage beyond. He looked back to see the taller man quietly beckon him closer. "… Might this be your 'unpleasant follow-up' ?"  Pointing upwards with a black gloved hand, the general drew his attention to what he had thought was a thick tree trunk.  

It _was_ a tree all right, but lashed to it was another one. A mammoth sized piece of dead trunk several feet wide and easily twenty feet long. Looking up into the shady canopy he could just make out a system of ropes holding it in place.  It certainly seemed deadly enough, but he couldn't fathom what the trigger was supposed to be that would make the giant log crash down. He just didn't want to be under it when it went 'splat'.  "Yeah. Looks like a smasher of some sort."

"I think they've rigged it to swing actually. Quite clever." Unhooking his sword from over his shoulder, Sephiroth used the weapon to reach up and prod the trap.

// Is he insane? //

"Um, please don't do that sir?"

"You may want to stand back, lieutenant." The general murmured, ignoring his hesitant plea for reason. Zack edged back a few feet, and wondered if he should give the man a few yards just in case. It didn't matter, he was obviously the least of the SOLDIER's immediate interests. "I believe I've found the trigger mechanism."

// He _is_ insane. //

// This will be the shortest Recon mission ever… half a day to hike this far… then two hours for me to run back with the mashed remains of yet another senior officer. Maybe if I fake a nervous breakdown in front of the board of inquiry they'll let me out on a medical discharge and I can go home and grow boring-ass sugar beats like a dutiful son and never get involved with Shinra again. //

Sephiroth's stretched up a little, increasing his already impressive reach by a few critical inches, and used the tip of his sword to saw through one of the ropes. It snapped neatly and the tree groaned and shifted, shedding weight as the piece of timber broke free and rocketed downwards.  It was only after it started moving that Zack was able to make out what had apparently been readily visible to the SOLDIER all along, a pair of pivoting cables tied to the log's side, causing it to swing in a massive arc instead of simply smashing into the ground. It moved like a huge battering ram down the path, easily capable of bashing several dozen closely packed men to a pulp before it was caught and brought down.  Gaping, he watched it reach the end of its arc and reversed course to swing back towards them. Even knowing he was out of range, he fought the urge to duck. 

The general, seeming to delight in doing exactly the opposite of commonsense, stepped directly into the path of the thing.  

// What the hell is he going to do, try and chop it in half with his oversized katana? // 

Visions of a squashed Sephiroth, and the faces of a disapproving board of Shinra executives asking him why he just _stood_ there while a promising officer got pulverized were enough to get him moving to the man's rescue, but not near fast enough. He was still more than a 'tackle' away when the officer calmly held out his arm and tried to catch the swinging log. Zack was close enough to hear the "Umph" at the impact, and was almost plowed into as the white haired man briefly lost traction with the ground and slid backwards.  The tall SOLDIER dug his heels in however, and to Zack's amazement, halted the beam's progress. It swung away again, far less energetic than before.   He simply stared as his companion reached out to catch it again, this time bringing it to rest with no effort at all.

"Holy shit."  He hadn't meant to say it aloud, felt stupid when he realized that he had. The general looked back at him as if noticing him for the first time. 

"I believe I like these natives of yours Mr. Thomson. They seem an economical bunch, and make good use of simple materials."

"They know their territory sir."  He agreed meekly, still trying to mentally accept the idea of the unflustered man critiquing the death-trap in front of him with the awesome strength needed to stop something _that heavy moving __that fast.  The thing was, Sephiroth just didn't _look_ that strong.  The man was ripped, that was certain, but despite being tall and broad shouldered he lacked any serious bulk. Up until now Zack had felt vaguely confident that they were probably an even match, despite the general's added inches of height.  He didn't even want to contemplate wrestling with the man now._

// SOLDIER… remember? Just because he doesn't look like Pavan, doesn't mean he can't do all the same crazy-ass shit. Or _more_… the rumors did say 'indestructible'… 'Sephiroth, the indestructible, incorruptible man.' // 

 He almost smiled.  It sounded like a great tag-line for a TV show.  Somehow he didn't think his superior would appreciate the joke.  

The man in question abruptly sliced upwards, splitting cable and chain to let the end of the log fall to earth. Hopping on the trunk, he briskly walked up its length until he could proceed to cut the second tether, riding the beam down to the ground and stepping off just before it impacted as if it had been his intention all along.  He looked back and raised an eyebrow in silent enquiry. 

Cursing himself out of his awed reverie, Zack scrambled over the log and moved to take the lead.  He didn't get far before his commander paused behind him, bending to the side to grab hold of the end of a severed rope.  Yanking it gently Sephiroth revealed that it was indeed the tripwire that would have set the log loose, tucked elegantly under a loose stack of rocks that either of them could have carelessly stepped on. "The lesson has been most informative, Mr. Thomson. Thank you."

"Yeah, no problem." He replied weakly. 

"Were there other traps that I failed to notice earlier?"

"A few, I walked us around most of them…" 

"Interesting. I should like to see them, if you don't mind pointing them out on the way back. But for now, it's likely best that we press ahead?"

"Yeah…" He shook his head, trying to get the image of Sephiroth catching a tree one-handed out of his mind. "Yes sir… right this way."  Glancing at his watch, he grimly noted that they had taken over half a day on their little hike, and they had a ways to go.  Shouldering his pack a little higher, he grimly re-estimated the length of the trip. If there was going to be fun like _this_ happening on the trails, it might not be a bad idea to abandon them all together and just go straight through. The more he thought about it, the better it sounded. Quicksand was far less tedious than constantly raking the ground ahead for buried explosives, and he had a hunch it would be only a matter of time before they started running into those as well as the rest of angry-Wutai's bag of tricks.

"With all do respect sir…" He glanced back.

"Yes?"

"Do you mind a bit of a cross-country hike?"

Sephiroth blinked. "What do you call what we've been doing so far?"

"Sticking to the trail like good little cannon-fodder." He grinned, not able to help himself. "I'm thinking, as crazy as it sounds, it'll be hell'a'safer in the bush then just constantly trusting luck to get us through the gauntlet they've rigged for us."

"If you don't like the game than don't play, is that it?"

"Yes sir. That's pretty much what I was thinking."

"I concur." The general smirked in reply, not a smile, but still, a far cry better than his usual impersonal expression. "Try not to get us lost, lieutenant?"

"Yessir." Feeling better already, Zack broke out a well-used machete and briskly began to clear a path through the brambles in a northerly direction. With any luck they'd hit the cove by nightfall. 

***** 

Their little makeshift camp on the cliff's edge was far more scenic than the base they had left behind. An easy distance below them was a slip of a beach and a handsome little cove.  Sephiroth exercised the privilege of laziness that his rank merited him, and explored the short cliff and beach while his subordinate briskly took care of everything else.  Initially he had set the man callously to work out of spite for his multitude of small irritations through out the day.  Finding out that he had been coddled all morning was annoying enough, but he was quietly certain that not all the mishaps that had occurred during their trek through the unmarked wilderness had been accidental.  

// To be fair, he seemed genuinely surprised about the bog… but the bats? And the overgrown beetle that looked like a rock…. And _then _the spiders?  He had to have known about some of that. Hell _I_ would have know about the bats if I had recognized what I was hearing. //

To be fair, the trooper hadn't provoked him to investigate the strange sounds coming from the hollow tree trunk, the man had already gone on ahead.  He could have offered some sort of warning however. The sudden exodus of three hundred or so small winged mammals wasn't something that would have startled him had he been aware of the possibility of accidentally spooking them into flight.  Too add to the minor disaster, one of the poor creatures had gotten tangled in his hair and had taken several tedious moments to detach and release.  Sephiroth grimaced and nudged a seashell with his boot.

He was getting depressingly familiar with his subordinate's 'not-smiling' face. The man's eyes betrayed what his face was hard pressed to conceal. _He_ was obviously having a _great time, at his general's expense.  Sephiroth had started watching the dark haired man very closely by the end of their hike, half paranoid about what _else_ the trooper could possibly get them into, half reluctantly admiring how easily he moved through the obstacles. The specialist seemed to have a knack for dealing with the unexpected, even if he looked ridiculous in the process. _

// At least I wasn't the one who almost got bitten by an irate… whatever that was… meanest looking badger I've ever seen… //  

He hadn't done much, simply grabbing the odd critter by its tail as it had lunged for the startled lieutenant and pitching it a short way into the bog. It had hissed and chattered in it's grumpy way and swum off to do something more entertaining than harass them while they poured the water out of their boots.  The specialist had praised his reflexes longer than strictly necessary, seeming to talk more when he was taken by surprise.  Sephiroth wasn't sure what annoyed him more, the dark haired man's tiny smile of amusement when watching him blunder, or his blatant looks of amazement when he so much as sneezed.  This was why he didn't bother interacting with the army directly if he had a choice. He hated being a spectacle.

// And if he so much as _breathes _ about anything that's happened today, so help me god I'll crush him. //

The thought was hopelessly childish, but then so were many of his reactions to the illogical trooper.  He turned with a sigh and found the convenient fault-line in the cliff that had brought him down to the beach in the first place. It was only a moment's work to go back the way he had came, transitioning from cliff to grassy outlook with a brief scrabble of loose pebbles. A small fire greeted him, hardly necessary given their climate, and meaning to ask about it he looked around only to find himself very alone. 

// Damnit… I leave him alone for two minutes and he goes native on me? //

Unsupervised, there was no telling _what  the idiot could have gotten up to. He didn't hear any sounds of distress coming from the jungle, but that didn't mean anything. Rubbing the bridge of his nose, he sighed and tried the obvious. "Lieutenant?"_

"Here sir."  The reply was prompt, the man's location however was a mystery. 

"Here _where, _trooper?"

"Up, sir."  

The cheerful answer had him craning his head back, mentally adding another demerit to the young man's profile for daring to defy gravity.  The dark haired trooper was most definitely up a tree.  Fairly far out along one of the droopy branches, he had his legs locked around it like an overgrown monkey while he industriously cut some yellow looking fruit free. 

Sephiroth refrained from commenting sourly that the man had returned to his natural element. He had been to the zoo once or twice in the past, and with the dark mop of hair hanging down in a loose mane, the specialist really did look like some sort of exotic chimpanzee.

"What are you _doing_ Mr. Thomson."

The man paused in his cutting to give him a tired look. His expression looked almost comical upside down. "… Permission to speak freely sir?"

"… Do you have any other way of speaking?"  The general sighed.

His subordinate paused, and then grinned. "Well, permission to speak even more freely?"

"Go ahead, lieutenant."

"Would you mind terribly calling me Zack like everyone else does?"

Sephiroth blinked, startled by the odd request. "… Why?"

"I dunno… It's just weird to hear 'Mr.Thomson' all the time…" Shrugging while hanging by one's knees had to be an acquired skill, the general decided, watching as the man resume his cutting with a soft laugh. "My dad always had people call him 'Mr. Thompson'… and I so whenever I hear it I think of him."

"… Lucky you."  He drawled, no longer particularly caring if he was at his 'professional best,' it wasn't like it mattered if the trooper was offended. The man didn't seem inclined to respect him anyway. 

"Heh, you've obviously never met my father." Zack laughed abruptly, almost dropping his knife in surprise "Did you just say what I think you said?  I'm sorry, forget I asked that, doesn't matter… here, lend me a hand?"

// When he says 'speak freely' he really means it… //  

Somewhat stunned by the sudden candidness, he stepped closer and instinctively caught the bundle dropped down to him.  "Careful," his companion warned, "They're very soft when ripe." 

The fruit was unfamiliar to him but smelled fairly safe. "What is this?"

"Desert." The trooper chuckled as he worked his way back down the tree. "I figured, since this is your first time in Wutai… and since you came in the right season and all… least we could do is give you something to eat that isn't steam-pressed into a little bar."

"Is it safe?"  He eyed the squishy produce doubtfully. Usually when things got _that soft in his refrigerator, it was well-past time for them to be thrown out._

"Is it safe he says…"  Staggering away from the slender trunk, the southerner relieved him of his burden. "They're Puddingfruit… 'Casimiora Edulis' if you want to be intellectual about it… Sapote is the native name I guess. Back in Gongaga we called them 'LittleSues' although hell if I've ever figured out why." 

// the more he talks, the less sense he makes. //   

Figuring he might as well satisfy his curiousity and give up on holding his headache at bay Sephiroth asked the other question that had been almost forgotten since the afternoon. "What was that badger-thing back at the swamp, I've never seen one before."

"Rowler. Nasty buggers, small, furry, irate, lots of teeth." The specialist summed up Sephiroth's first impression of the animal nicely. "Probably wanted to take a piece out of me for daring to lose my boot in its territory."  

"Lovely."

"Hey, could be worse, we haven't run into any of the big shit at least."

The general rolled his eyes, confident that the growing darkness would keep the gesture from being seen. "Right. I've heard the rumors of flesh eating trees and moths the size of small children…"

"Oh, well those exist, but they're pretty rare." Zack shrugged, poking at the fire with a stick. "I'm more worried about tigers or dragons, frankly."

"I'll keep that in mind."  He watched, perplexed as the trooper unearthed what looked like potatoes, wondering just how hungry he was. Campfire cooking had never been a favorite of his.

Seeming to read his mind, his unlikely subordinate handed him a well cooked tuber. "If you hate it, there are always 'tasty' rations in the pack."

"…point." Given his options, he suddenly looked at the humble entrée with more appreciation. Anything had to be better than freeze-dried protein. He could feel the heat of the thing through his gloves, and nibbled it cautiously.  Nearby the ocean waves poured onto the beach with the incoming tide, a peaceful end to an altogether unusual day. He circumspectly watched the young officer as he too gazed out at the water, seeming content with the world. In repose his face was quite handsome. Sephiroth blinked at the realization and promptly squashed it. 

// Oh no… no no no… There will be absolutely none of that. // He scolded his usually dormant libido.  The very idea of having any more contact than strictly necessary with the wayward trooper was enough to make him have a pre-emptive breakdown. The man was completely inappropriate in every possible way, cleverness, dexterity, and looks aside, he was already an established discipline case. 

// The last thing you need is to get weak kneed over some prank playing hick with a dangerous sense of humor. //  Properly cowed, his subconscious let the impulse go, and he allowed himself to relax slightly. It was ironic that he wanted the man to talk, to irritate him, if only to put the unexpected attraction out of his mind for good. "How did you know the cove was here?"

"Well I've been here before, haven't I…"  The wild haired man slouched back against his tree and wiped his hands on his pants to dust off the last of the crumbs. "Not for months, but yeah… some of us used to come out here every now and again for the fruit trees… the villagers too. Sapote is mighty tasty when it's in season."

"how does one eat it…?"  He gingerly held one of the proffered fruit in his hand, afraid that it would disintegrate into mush if he breathed on it. 

"Bite off the tip, but don't eat the rind, it's not good for you. Then just sort of squeeze it out into your mouth… nothing to it."  Demonstrating, the trooper spat out the piece of the fruit's skin and carefully squeezed, demonstrating that the soft core of the fruit was indeed of a pudding sort of consistency. 

Sephiroth did the same, glade that the soft pulp was safely mild flavored. Unusual but not at all unpleasant, he acknowleged that maybe the trooper knew what he was talking about. "… Why is it that I've never seen these in Midgar?"

"They don't travel well at all. Too soft."

"Pity, maybe if they were frozen."

"Would cost a fortune." Zack disagreed  mildly, "You'd be better of exporting a tree or two… grow your own."

"Would they survive outside a greenhouse?"

"Probably not."

"Ah well."  He dismissed the idea, and weighed the merits of a second helping. It was safer not to, despite the specialist's obvious familiarity with the fruit. There was no telling if he would wake up to find himself allergic as it was.  

The moon was almost bright enough to read by, beyond their comfortable shadows. He reached out a foot to kick the little blaze out of center, encouraging the flame to die down quickly. "… I'll take first watch Mr. Thomson."

The younger officer gave him an odd look, silently understanding that their informal little 'chat' was done for the night. "In that case… Wake me when it's time, sir."  A moment of shuffling with his jacket and he was curled into a compact huddle against the trunk of his tree. Sephiroth listened to his breathing as it readily settled into a relaxed rhythm. As quick to sleep as he was to do everything else, the trooper became dead to the world with awe inspiring speed. 

// As if he hasn't a care in the world. //  

He snorted, easily believing it to be true.  Staring at the curled-up ball of fatigues and jacket and boots lost its appeal after the first few minutes. Luckily there was the entire expanse of the ocean to admire as well. Stretching his legs out in front of him, the pale man settled a little deeper into his trench coat and enjoyed the view. 

***** 

"Wake up, lieutenant."  The murmured instruction was accompanied by a fairly business like boot to his calf and he came awake with a jolt.  It wasn't the best way to start a morning, especially when the 'morning' was only a few hours old. Zack scrubbed his face with his hands to get his eyes to wake up, and blinked at how light it was already.  A glance at his watch confirmed it. The general had let him oversleep by several hours.

// That's rather generous of him… unless he fell asleep too… and he _really_ doesn't seem the type. //  

Given that the pale man's only waited long enough to see if he was stirring before crossing his arms over his chest and tucking his chin into his collar, it wasn't likely he would volunteer an explanation. "… wake me in three hours."

"…yessir…"

Wracking his brain, he tiredly came to the conclusion that it had to be one of the most abrupt wakeup calls he had ever had.  

// It's 3am… do you know where your generals are? //

With little to do but wait until sun rise, he fumbled in the dark for another pudding fruit, and then decided he might as well wash up a bit while the stuffy officer was too oblivious to get offended by it.  There was nothing out of the ordinary coming from the jungle.  A quick inspection and he was satisfied that nothing would eat his commander while he slipped down the cliff for a rinse off. The itch of drying salt water was vastly preferable to trudging in yesterday's dried mud.

// … could forage for breakfast maybe… //  

He considered the bit of deeper water that he could make out.  It was still a little dark for fishing. 

// City-guy that he is, he might freak out if I try and feed him fish for breakfast. //

Given the option of fish or ration-bar, Zack knew which one he'd choose. He sighed and climbed back up the cliff to see if he had tucked something as useful as a fishhook and string in his bag on the way out of camp.  If the officer didn't want any, it was just more for him. 

The cove, facing east as it was, wasn't that great at sunset, but it made up for it by being twice as pretty in the morning.  He was almost glad he was up to see it.  Glancing over at his silent companion he couldn't help but notice that even asleep, the man didn't unwind so much as a hair.  Or rather, his hair was the only thing about him that looked relaxed. Legs elegantly crossed at the heels, hands tucked into his jacket, the officer might have been lounging a quiet moment at a bus stop rather than claiming his drastically shortened second-shift in the middle of nowhere.  If the morning noises of the various critters and birds bothered him, he made no motion.

// Somehow I didn't peg him as a deep sleeper either… //  

He resisted the stupid impulse to poke the man to see if he was actually awake.  He was breathing steadily enough, the slow methodical movement of his chest a little too regular to feel quite right. Visions of the man being secretly filled with clockwork danced through his head. It only lasted a moment. He had gotten the barest glimpses yesterday that there was indeed a person lurking under that flawless façade.  As impossible as it seemed the super-soldier was definitely no machine.

// … It's like under all that spit and polish, there's a genuine asshole wanting to get out. //

The sun was high enough to come straight over the water at last, catching in the SOLDIER's white-blond hair and tinting it pale pink for an odd moment as the sky's color's shifted.  Really looking at the odd colored locks he had to give up on calling them blond at all. It was more like the officer had gone prematurely gray, or in his case, white. There was no color at all to the long mane. 

// He can't be more than mid-thirties… He's supposed to be like, the youngest general ever… and Heidigger is not yet 40… bet that really pisses the fat ass off… //  

Glancing at his watch, he decided he could no longer prolong the inevitable. His breakfast was cooking merrily on the beach, the sun was up, and the small digital display informed him that the general's three hours were up. Zack cringed, hoping that the man wasn't a surly riser. 

"Um, general? It's morning."

"I'm awake."  

// No-one just wakes up like that…  he had to be faking. // 

The pale officer certainly didn't act like someone groggy from a nap. He gave a token effort to stretching and simply stood up as if ready to immediately set out. Zack moved to interrupt before the man actually put thought into action. "Breakfast will be ready in a bit, sir."

"… breakfast?"  Sephiroth gave him an odd look. "Explain."

"Well it isn't much, but I have some water boiling for coffee… and then there's fish if you want it… or rations…"

At the very mention of 'fish' the general's expression tightened around the edges, proving his initial assumption was correct. Zack quietly filed the reaction away for another time.

// No fish for breakfast… I guess… or maybe just no fish at all…? Strange guy. I wonder  if I…//

"Good fishing in this part of the coast, water is clear for miles… get some great eels too…"  He kept his voice deliberately cheerful and oblivious, wickedly noting how the pale man got a little greener with every word. 

"I shall be fine with coffee, thank you Mr. Thomson."

"I remember Midgar always had lousy seafood…"  He escaped before the pale man could muster the energy to send him off on some chore to make him shut up, sliding down to the beach to put the finishing touches on his breakfast. With luck he could wrap a little of it in the leftover tinfoil and have a snack for lunch too. 

True to his word, the general stuck to his coffee when he came down to join him. The officer stayed well on the windward side of the fire, eying 'breakfast' with subtle, but still obvious distaste.  Zack watched him carefully and realized with pleasure that he was finally starting to get the hang of him. The man was by far the most pokerfaced individual he had ever encountered, but even _he had a quirk or two that could reveal his moods._

// If I told him he had expressive eyebrows, he'd probably throw me half the way to Cozmo-country. No… no I think I'll keep that little revelation to myself. // 

Having to keep up with a man who wasn't actually eating meant bolting his food and cleaning the rest as quickly as possible. He kicked wet sand over the fire to put it out.  "After you, general," he nodded towards the little fissure they had used as a ladder, packing the last of his bag away and swinging it onto his shoulders.  

Even before his stomach had settled, they were firmly back in amidst the trees, enjoying the fact that the insects wouldn't be up for another hour or so. Zack glanced back from time to time to check on his companion, but the general seemed quite content to let him cut a trail straight to the capital if that was what he had it in his mind to do. Luckily, his sense of direction was working just fine and they made good time across country only to pop out of the green right on top of the creek and trail that he was looking for.

"Is this the same..?"

"No sir. This is something of a local road, so there's a decent chance they won't have rigged it." __

"It's heading back towards the coast." 

Zack gave the man credit for keeping on top of where they had been going, not that he'd trust the officer to wander off on his own in the brush. They were making good time down the trail. He was feeling pretty confident about their chance of reaching the village before lunch.  The jungle sadly had other plans.  No sooner than he had cleared the trees to walk them through an overgrown clearing, than he smelled the impending danger.

"… Oops." 

"What?"  Irritated at his outburst, the officer stopped behind him and drew breath to make a more complete inquiry when his question answered itself.  A rustle of bushes just ahead produced an angular head covered in iridescent gray-green scales.  Two more rustles, and two more, and they were well and truly flanked. Each of the monsters was easily the size of truck and from the look of it, they had interrupted breakfast.  He had been so busy patting himself on the back over the lack of booby-traps that they had walked right into the middle of a little draconic buffet. 

Zack reached for a sword that wasn't there, and swore again. "Damn it. We won't out run them if they're hungry…"

"They are single minded creatures." Sephiroth blandly agreed.  "Nothing for it I suppose but to go through the middle."

He shot the officer a look, wondering at how even a super soldier could calmly start his day off with five oversized man-eating lizards.  After the man's little performance yesterday, he was marginally inclined to believe that he knew what he was up to.  Still, it was a bit much. "… Anything you say, sir."  He tried to keep the sigh out of his voice.

"Stay  put. You'll be of no use to me if you to get eaten."

// Oh I'm not _that bad… Jeez… think I've never fought a dragon before… //_

Zack glanced down, idly noting that taking on a dragon with a semi-automatic was extremely stupid, and taking it on with a machete was probably suicide. Given his options, he settled for being stupid and thumbed the safety off the weapon. There was a chance of landing a lucky shot or two after all.  "I'll just…"  He was speaking to empty air.

He blinked and looked ahead only to cringe as the general sidestepped two lunging dragons bent on snacking on a limb or two. Sephiroth was doing exactly what he said he would, picking one of the beasts out at random and attacking it with precise movements. He was hampered somewhat by the other four nipping at him from all sides, but only barely.  The first monster went down before Zack could shake off the shock. 

// Move it Moron, before one of the critters gets a mouth full of his hair or something! //

The white mane really was an easy target. The dragons seemed particularly drawn to its sparkling hue.  Moving before he had entirely thought things through, he raised his gun and caught one of the beasts in the shoulder, just to get its attention.  

"Hey! Ugly! Come on!"

The scaly brute promptly left off harassing the general and turned his direction with a smoky hiss. 

// Oh crap. Gray-green… does that mean their acid spitters? Fire? Ice? I can't remember… // 

Jerking its head abruptly, it opened its jaws and released a gout of fire in his direction. He staggered backwards, and by some miracle, kept his footing. 

// Fire it is. //

Trying to tell himself to be grateful it wasn't acid, and believe it. He dared a quick glance behind him to see what he was about to trip over, and then back at his target.  It had multiplied when he wasn't looking, a second dragon lunging for him while the other chirped encouragement. The snap of teeth in the air where his knee had been moments before was all the wakeup call he needed. Zack caught a glimpse of white and the quick weaving of a long sword out of the corner of his eye but couldn't spare the man a thought.  Knowing it was his only real chance, he bolted for the trees, hoping to draw the beasts into a less favorable battleground. 

The crashes through the vegetation behind him proved that both the dragons had taken the bait, following him between the closely packed trunks and away from where their comrades were hopefully being turned into leather-goods complements of a very long katana.  

// Hypothetically, all I have to do is keep the buggers busy until the general can get around to them…// 

He ducked around a pile of boulders only to hear one of the dexterous monsters scrabble right over them and land with a heavy thump directly in his path. He shot it in the eye without even pausing to aim, dumb luck serving him better than any official training on the firing range. It howled in understandable pain, and he ducked around it while it was distracted, diving between two large trunks and down into a bit of a gully. 

// … which… given how fast Sephiroth took down the first one… should be about what… ten minutes… //

The only problem he could see was that he probably would only last five.  Spying something of an open path ahead, he focused on putting some distance between himself and his now furious pursuers. Their loud progress receded a few critical yards behind him, leaving him a moment's breathing room to consider his next plan.  He burst out into another clearing, and cursed, veering right to duck back into the trees. Another abrupt right and he was doubling-back on a parallel course, temporarily losing sight of both of the sinuous lizards.  He glanced behind him, paranoid.  He could hear them close by, but had to make an educated guess as to which way to duck.  

Zack was only partly right.  One of the dragons was indeed lost behind him. The injured beast, being partly blinded, was further back than he had anticipated, erupting through the trees next to him with a wide blast of fire. He smelled his jacket start to char around the edged as he rolled out of the way and shot at it again. The bullet struck but seemed to lodge in its jawbone rather than doing any particular damage. He swore and tried again, waiting for it to lunge, its face inches from the tip of his gun. Judging by the way it flinched and wailed he had hit something soft in the back of the dragon's throat. Skittering back, he gasped for breath.

//  I'm going to have to poke tiny holes in this thing until I hit something lucky? This isn't going to work… //

Actually aiming for once, he lined up a perfect shot for the beast's already bloodied eye, only to have his gun jam.  Pressing the trigger caused a sick sounding 'ka-click' and did absolutely nothing useful. 

"... no fucking way."  He would have groaned in annoyance if he could have spared the energy.

Ducking yet more fire-breath, he blindly went through the motions of trying to bang the mechanism free. It was no good. It was well and truly stuck.  The dragon was bleeding freely from the mouth, looking seriously messed up but not quite ready to die yet.  He didn't dare take his eyes off of it long enough to stop and figure out how the defective weapon was broken. He used it to block a clawed swipe at his head instead, not feeling entirely sorry when it was swatted out of his grip.

A fresh bellow over his shoulder proved that whatever he was going to do, it would have to be fast.  

// Now would be a great time for a rescue, sir… //  

There was no sign of a white-haired SOLDIER in the near vicinity, and every chance that the man was in fact a well-chewed corpse by now.  

The dragon in front of him tottered a little, proving that he must have hit something more important than he had thought before his gun had characteristically failed. He should have known better than to expect more than that from a piece of Shinra equipment.  With no other immediate options, he bolted again, leading the second monster back through the jungle in the hopes of eventually working his way back to where he had left his superior.  It was determined to catch him before he got far however, and it was all he could do to keep up in their little game of cat and mouse. 

***** 

Sephiroth dispatched the last dragon with a final swipe of his blade, neatly inserting his blade in a weak point between the plated-underbelly and the mottled hide along its back.  A critical artery burst, halting the animal mid stride and leaving it sprawled on the ground like a broken toy. He eyed it critically as he completed the stroke, flinging the blood off his blade in a wide arc. 

It looked dead enough. He really didn't have time to second-guess himself. There were still two more to attend to. Five mid-sized forest dragons, they were nothing to sweat about really, except that his lunatic of a guide had insisted on getting involved. The general distinctly remembered telling the man to stay put. The insubordinate trooper probably hadn't even heard him; too busy yelling some unintelligible challenge as he dove into the fray. He would have to speak to Zack later about that. First he'd have to find him. 

The rustling trees all around him disoriented him for a moment. He had been standing within five feet of the dark-haired man when the beasts had attacked, but the ensuing fight seemed to have put some distance, and shrubbery between them. Cursing the younger trooper's folly, he pushed through the jungle growth; following the smashed trail of greenery to see if there was anything left of the shaggy mess of an officer. 

Sephiroth was mildly impressed when he came across the carcass of one of the beasts. Prodding it with his foot, a glint of something muddy and man-made caught his eye amidst the lush plants. Long-range repeating with sight, clip and strap; it looked like it lay where it had fallen as its owner had retreated further into the brush. Picking it up, the general couldn't decide if he was pleased or annoyed to see that the empty slots in the clip almost matched the bullet holes in the monster's head. His temporary subordinate was no slouch in the field despite his bizarre take on discipline. He banged the weapon sharply against a tree to free the cartridge stuck in its internal assembly and found that it still seemed to function well enough.  He shouldered the gun and looked around for further clues. The whole situation was puzzling. 

It also left him with one dragon: missing, and one absent officer: unarmed. The general almost felt bad about the man having left his carthorse-sized blade back at camp; almost. It was hard to believe that the heavy weapon was usable in the slightest by a normal soldier, no matter how strong or energetic. 

Twitching his own sword, he cut away a piece of offending brush as he followed the trail deeper. A sharp edge was far more appropriate for fighting armored dragon-hide than even the heavy slugs Zack had used to fell the first of his attackers. He was a little surprised more of the bullets hadn't bounced off. Either the specialist was an exceptional shot even under pressure, or Scarlet had been improving her 'special blend' of gunpowder again. His money was on Scarlet. 

Bending back a frond easily as tall as he was, he was presented with an unexpected sight. Not only was the specialist still alive, he was still _attacking_. 

// Is he for real? Specialists really are 'above and beyond'... Any more 'fearless' and they'd be psychotic. //

The pale man blinked as his guide nimbly dodged two gouts of flame by running up the side of a mammoth boulder, and then springing off the top to literally catch the monster by the horns. Using his grip and momentum, Zack administered a ruthless kick to a serpentine eye.  It was impossible to say whether the move was planned or just ludicrously lucky.  The man didn't present like he had a clue what he was doing, hanging on for all he was worth as his unlikely perch tried to shake him loose. The beast screamed in frustration, finally throwing its head back violently enough to toss its attacker head-over-heels into the brush several yards away. The bush-rat of a trooper crashed into a banana tree with a startled "Woot!" 

Taking advantage of its exposed neck as it turned to look for its tormentor, Sephiroth sighed and closed in for the kill. 

// The man has balls, I'll give him that... // 

Using his speed to best advantage, he was in position before the dragon was aware of his arrival. Catching it just below the jaw, he decapitated it in a smooth stroke. Even in the heavy air of the tropics, the blood steamed thickly as it poured free. He blinked as the vapor stung his eyes. 

Looking away, he was confronted with an equally unappealing sight. 

Zack seemed to have suffered no lasting harm from his impromptu flight. The dusky trooper was leaning against his tree with an air of lazy amusement. Sephiroth resisted the urge to bawl him out, and then the closely following impulse to ask if he was all right. Instead he took a moment to ground his unnaturally energetic reaction to the man, raking him with a cool glare that took in muddy knees and leaf-be-decked hair. 

"... So," the trooper drawled. Instead of being properly cowed by the silent scolding, Zack seemed to take it as a challenge. His grin was of a broad friendly sort, displaying a set of brilliant white teeth. 

// Either born lucky, or got braces once he got to Midgar… wonder which it was… // 

He crushed the irrelevant thought and stepped over the corpse to close the distance between them.  "Yes, Mr. Thomson?" He sighed in annoyance, handing over the lost gun.

"…What kept you?"

Sephiroth blinked, startled by the teasing question.  The insufferable man had the audacity to laugh when he didn't answer immediately. He glared at the back of the dark-haired head as his escort paused to get his bearings and briskly set off again, leading him god-only-knew where. 

// I should have let the dragons eat him. //

*****

*****

Every time I sit down to put out a chapter of this I get distracted by something for a month *Crosses fingers* here's hoping the next one won't take quite as long. -- Lunar


End file.
